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AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA 
OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
FOR ALL CLASSES. 

Edited by WALTER P. WRIGHT, 

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PICTORIAL 
PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWmG. 



EDITED BY WALTER P. WRIGHT. 

Cassell's Dictionary of Practical 

Gardening. 
The Gardener. 

WORKS BY WALTER P. W^RIGHT. 

Pictorial Practical Gardening. 
Pictorial Practical Fruit Growing. 
Pictorial Greenhouse Management. 
Pictorial Practical Vegetable 
Growing. 

Pictorial Practical Rose Growing. 

CAS51':LL & COMPANY, Limited, Lonlon; 
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PICTORIAL PRACTICAL 
YEGETABLE GROWING 

A PRACTICAL MANUAL 

GIVING DIRECTIONS FOR LAYING OUT KITCHEN GARDENS 
AND ALLOTMENTS, DESCRIBING THE VALUE AND USE 
OF MANURES, ADVISING AS TO THE DESTRUCTION 
OF PESTS, DEALING WITH THE PRINCIPAL 
TOOLS AND APPLIANCES 



TREATING ON THE CULTURE AND BEST VARIETIES OF EVERY 
IMPORTANT VEGETABLE 



WALTER P. WRIGHT 

Horticultural Superintendent under the Kent County Council 



WITH NEARLY ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS 



CASSELL AND COMPANY, Limited 

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK tt- MELBOURNE 
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First Edition May 1902 
Re^vinUd 1903, 

P. 



Publ. 



PREFACE. 



It is unnecessary to say more, in introducing the present volume, 
than that it is of the same style and character as those from 
my pen which have preceded it. 

That is to say, practical illustration is a great feature of it. 

Its sister volumes were welcomed, I believe, because an effort 
was made to render their teaching clear without being wordy. I 
have saved the reader's time and my own by follow^ing the same 
lines in this. 

The series represents gardening instruction in tabloid form. 

WALTER P. WRIGHT 

May, 1902. 



CONTENTS. 

CHArTEll fAGE 

1. — A KiTCHEjf Garden and the Wonders it Works , 7 

II. — SUCCESSIONAL CROPPING 14 

III. — How TO Till the Soil 18 

IV. — Thoughts about MANURiNa . . . . . . 23 

V. — A Chat about Seeds 38 

VI.— Diseases and Insect Pests . ... . . 52 

VII.— Lifting and Storing Roots 68 

VIII.— Artichokes .72 

IX.— Asparagus 74 

X.— Beans 76 

XI. — Beetroot . 80 

XII.— Borecole, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, and Savoys, 

collectively known as Winter Greens . . 81 

XIII. — Cabbages . 86 

XIV. — Carrots 89 

XV.— Cauliflow^ers 92 

XVI.— Celery 93 

XVII.— Cucumbers 96 

XVIIL— Leeks 100 

XIX.— Mushrooms . . .101 

XX.— Onions 102 

XXI.— Parsnips 106 

XXIL— Peas . 108 

XXIIL— Potatoes 112 

XXIV.— Rhubarb 126 

XXV.— Seakale • ... 128 

XXVI.— Tomatoes 131 

XXVII.— Turnips 136 ' 

XXVIII.— Vegetable IMarrows 137 

XXIX.— Some Minor Vegetables 139 

XXX.— Salads 142 

XX XT.— Herbs 145 

XXX IT.- Exhibiting . 146 



Pictorial 
Practical Vegetable Growing. 

Cbapter \ —n KitcD^n 6araen, ana m 
Wonders it Works, 

The victorious vegetable grower is a person who drinks deeply of the 
joy of life. 

Artists have their moments of happiness and their moments of 
despair ; poets look on the world by turns cheerfully and hopelessly ; 
but the vegetable grower follows a path of perennial pleasure. 

When a man has taken up by turns literature, art, and the drama, 
and has proved a failure with them all, he usually resorts to 
gambling, drinking, suicide, or something equally pusillanimous and 
wasteful. Yet if he took to vegetable culture he would become 
morally and phj^sically regenerated, and would know wl at it is to 
feel a completely happy man. 

In a fairly wide experience of the world in general, and of horti- 
culture in particular, I can truthfully say that I have encountered 
only one class of people who are thoroughly contented with the world 
— contented with what they do in it, contented with v/hat they make 
out of it, and, above all, contented beyond all ordinary contentment 
with themselves. These are the vegetable growers. How better 
could perfect happiness be expressed than in what is here said ? 

Let me set down, as nearly as I can recall them, the beautiful 
lines from an old lyric : — 

Art thou poor, yet liast thou golden slumbers ? 
Oh ! sweet content ! 
Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplexed ? 

Oh ! punishment ! 
Dost thou laugh, when fools are vexed, 
To add to golden numbers golden numbers ? 

Oh ! sweet content ! Oh ! sweet content ! 

Now for a paraphrase of it, which I hope that lovers of the poet 
will forgive :-— 

Art thou sick, and hast thou broken slumbers ? 
Oh 1 time ill-spent ! 
Hast thou a barrow and a spade annexed ? 

Oh I wise intent ! 
Dost thou dig, when fools are vexed 
To add to golden numbers golden numbers ? 

Oh! sweet content I Oh! sweet content ! 



8 PICTORIAL TBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Vegetable growers have their faihires as well as their successes. 
^\h.y, therefore, do they not suffer the depressions of other men 1 
All ! there's the crux !^ Any ass can be happy when the sun shines 
and the thistles are thick, but it wants a philosophical ass to be able 
to bray cheerfully when food is scarce and beatings fall thick and 
fast. Without claiming that this is a particularly complimentary 
metaphor, I yet proceed to extract the kernel from it. The vegetable 
grower is the superior member of society which he is simply and 
solely because he is able, through good and through evil report, to 
retain his equanimity. 

It is not easy to say w^hy vegetable growers are, as a class, so con- 
tented, but the fact is beyond dispute. If I myself were asked to 
define that fascination which makes my Potato patch more enjoyable 
to me than an art gallery, or a theatre, or a Parliament house, or a 
museum, I should very likely be at a loss to answw. Even in the 
inner ring — the garden itself, with its rockery, its Rose beds, its fruit 
quarters, its greenhouse — the kitchen garden is the centre of interest. 
Yes ! there is no possible doubt about it, vegetable culture is of all 
things on this earth the most completely seductive and satisfying. 

In the few chapters on vegetables which I propose to give, I want 
my readers to agree with me in putting the subject on this higher plane. 
I want them to go into it as I do, with an enthusiastic and whole- 
hearted joy. There is, in some quarters, a craven fear of acknowledg- 
ing the fascination of Pea growing : w^e wdll have none of it here. I 
once heard the words infra dig. murmured in connection wdth manual 
labour in a kitchen garden. I responded with the one pun of my 
life, and here it is : Yes, and I am IN FOPt A DIG ! " 

The pun w^as execrable, but the spirit ot the response I unflinch- 
ingly support. Let hifradigr be the w^atchw^ord of the lily-fingered, 
and " In for a dig" be the battle-cry of you and I. 

Is there a person reading these lines who is hovering on the brink 
of kitchen gardening ? His plot is small, mayhap, and he has had no 
training ; perhaps his purse is shallow. Let me link his arm in mine, 
and tell him, in words of earnestness if not of eloquence, to fear not, 
neither to despair ; rather to take his courage in both hands, and 
send his seed order off by the very next post. 

I have said that the person who hesitates may have a very small 
■plot ; but then, on the other hand, he may have a very large one. 
Here, straight aw^ay, we run up against a practical point — one that is 
well worth an argument. 

What is an adequate sized piece of ground for a kitchen garden ? 
How large a piece can one man manage How many people will a 
given area of ground supply with vegetables ? These are questions 
which call for a little consideration. All of them could be disposed of 
(and are frequently disposed of) in one abstract proposition — "It all 
depends." A convenient proposition, this, for the man in a hurry, or 
for the man who does not know ! Convenient, yet not, when analysed, 
altogether exhilarating to the man who wants to know. 

Obviously, the question of what area is adequate can only be 



mW TO LAY OUT A 20-BOD PLOT OF GROUND. 



9 




10 PIGTORIAL PBAGTIGAL VEOETABLE GROWING. 




FIG. 2.-A PLOT OF ABOUT HALF AN ACRE. 

(Exact size : 180 by 120 feet.) 

For reference?:, see page 11. 



HOW TO CROP A BALF-AGRE PLOT, 11 

decided from a knowledge of the size of the family, and its tastes and 
requirements. There are only two people in some families, there are 
twenty in others. Again, in some households vegetables are served 
at two meals a day ; in others only at one, which makes just all the 
difference. I might add (and it is very much to the point in my own 
particular case) that another very important consideration is this : 
Is the culture intended merely to furnish a certain quantity of vege- 
tables for a certain number of people every day in the year, or is it to 
.do this and satisfy the owner's love of experiment as well — which 
again makes just all the difference ? 
A few plain figures may be helpful. 

1. Twenty square rods, poles, or perches of ground, each square 
rod, pole, or perch being, of course, 30^ square yards, will, if well 
cropped, supply a family of at least four people with vegetables at 
one meal a day every day in the year. (See page 9 for a plan.) 

Some may be inclined to doubt the accuracy of this, yet it has 
been done, to my personal knowledge, and will be again. Let us see 
what may be grown on 20 square rods of ground : 

Ten square rods of Potatoes, which should yield eight sacks of 
1| cwt. each, equal to 1,344 lb., or approximately 33 lb. a day 
throughout the year. 

Eight sacks from 10 rods is a good yield, but not in any way an 
impossible one. It is merely a question of culture. 

Twenty rows of winter Greens, part of these following early 
Potatoes, or autumn Onions, or Peas, others coming between 
Potatoes. 

Three rows of Peas, early, miclseason, and late, so as to -yield a 
succession. 

Two rows of broad Beans, sown successionally. 
One row of Scarlet Eunners, which, if grown as I shall presently 
advise, will yield pods for three or four months. 

One row of dwarf French Beans, which will give a few nice 



REFERENCES TO FIG. 2.— PRECEDING PAGE. 
A, fence ; B, paths ; C, D, E, F, entrances. 

References to borders round the fence : Vegetable Marrows ; spring 
Cabbages ; c, suminer Cabbages ; Broccoli for winter and spring ; ^, 
Brussels Sprouts ; /, Cauliflowers ; ^, Asparagus ; h, Rhubarb ; i, 
Jerusalem Artichokes; y, Horseradish; Ic, Seakale ; kl^ Globe Arti- 
chokes ; ly Shallots ; m. Garlic ; n, Sweet Marjoram, Basil, and Summer 
Savory ; Sorrel ; p, Tarragon ; ^, Chervil ; r, Thyme ; s, Mint ; 
Sage ; it, Lettuce ; v, Endive ; w, Dwarf Kidney or French Beans ; a?, 
early Turnips ; main crop Turnips ; Winter Spinach. 

References to the inner quarters : a, Tripoli Onions ; Spring Onions ; c, 
Carrots; Beet; Salsify; /, Scorzonera ; g, Chicory; A, Leeks; e, 
Parsley ; y, early Potatoes ; Jc, second early Potatoes ; main crop 
Potatoes ; m, Runner Beans ; Parsnips ; o, first early Peas, in three 
sowings (1, 2, 3) ; p, second early Peas, in two sowings (1, 2) ; main 
crop Peas ; r, late Peas ; s, Broad Beans, early and succession. 



12 PICTORIAL PBAGTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 




FIG. 3.-A PLOT OF ABOUT ONE ACRE CROPPED WITH FRUIT 
AND VEGETABLES. 

(Size of plot: 75 by 65 yards. Scale 1 inch = 60 feet.) 

A, the entrance to the garden from the south. 

B, the entrance to the garden from the north. 

0, the central walk and cross-paths. 

D, the end and side paths. 

E, a cinder path. 

F, a south wall with the south aspect occupied by Apricots, Cherries, 

Plums, and Pears ; the north aspect with culinary Plums and 
Apples. 

G-, a north wall : the south aspect accommodating Peaches, Nectarines, 
and Figs, and the north aspect Morello Cherries and late Currants. 

H, an east wall : on the east aspect, Cherries and dessert Plums ; on the 
west aspect, Pears. 

1, a west wall : the west aspect with Pears and choice Apples, the east 

aspect with Plums and Pears. 

(Co)Uinued on page 13.) 



HOW TO CROP A ONE-AGUE PLOT. 13 

pickings until the Runners are ready, and then very likely be allowed 
to languish in the shadow of neglect, according to bad but well- 
established rule. 

Nine rows of Onions, which may or may not include some 
autumn (or rather summer) sown, but certainly should include two 
or three rows of early, box-raised plants. 

Six rows of Cabbages, summej: sown, to yield hearts in spring. 

Six rows of Carrots, four of Parsnips, four of Beet, four of 
Turnips, and three of Shallots. 

Two rows of autumn Cauliflowers, two of Celery, and two of 
Leeks. 

One row of Tomatoes, although in many cases space can be- 
found for these on a wall. 

This does not actually exhaust all the space, which has been care- 
fully worked out ; indeed, room can be found for a row each of red 
pickling Cabbages, Jerusalem Artichokes, Salsify, Scorzonera, and 
Turnip-rooted Celery, if wanted, with patches for Salads, Cucumbers, 
Vegetable Marrows, Rhubarb, and Herbs. Spinach could be grown 
between the Peas. 

Of course, I am not contending that everything could be grown 
on the ground at the same time. The question of successions comes 
in, and that is to engage our early attention. 

In connection with the above figures, it may be asked : What is 
meant by a " row " ? The reply is that, for the sake of establishing a 
standard on which to work, I have proceeded on the assumption that 
the 20-rod plot is 10 rods (55 yards) long by 2 rods (11 yards) wide, 
but if a piece of ground of the same area is shorter and wider, or 



CROPPIISra A ONE-ACRE PLOT. 

(Continiied from page 12.) 

J, the "bush fruit quarter : a. Raspberries ; h, Black Currants ; r, Red 
Currants ; d, White Currants ; Gooseberries ; /, Strawberries ; g, 
(on tlie outside border) Rhubarb. 

K, dessert and culinary Apple trees, bushes or pyramids, 9 feet apart. 

Permanent vegetable and other crops : h, Horseradish ; ^, J erusalem 
Artichokes ; Globe Artichokes ; Seakale ; herbs, etc. 

General vegetahle crops : m, autumn Onions ; winter Spinach ; o, 
spring Lettuces ; early Strawberries ; ^, early, dwarf, or French 
Beans ; r, early Broad Beans ; s, seed beds for Brassicas and Celery ; 
t, early Carrots and Turnips ; w, new bed of herbs ; summer 
Turnips ; late Broccoli ; a?, Vegetable Marrows ; early 
Potatoes ; 2, early Peas ; a, ridge Cucumbers ; J, second early 
Potatoes ; Broccoli ; d, late Strawberries ; late Celery ; /, the 
m lin crop of Broccoli ; Brussels Sprouts ; h, second early Peas ; 
i, main crop Peas; j, late Peas; ky Runner Beans; I, main crop 
Celery; m, main crop Potatoes; spring Onions; 0, Carrots; p. 
Beet ; q, Salsifj^ ; r, Leeks ; 5, Parsnips ; t, Parsley ; w, Asparagus ; 
V, early succession Cauliflowers. 



U PIGTOEIAL PR AG TIG AL VEGETABLE 



GUOWING. 



longer and narrower, the multiplication table will adjust matters to a 
nicety. Thus, six rows of Carrots, each row 11 yards long, mean 
66 yards run of Carrots, and that quantity can be calculated for in a 
piece of ground of any shape. 

The foregoing will show that a very large quantity of vegetables 
can be grown on 20 square rods. As a matter of fact, a 20-rod slice 
of land is very much bigger than most people calculate. AYhen they 
have worked it thoroughly for a season they realise its extent much 
better than they did before. 

Ten rods of ground will supply a very nice lot of vegetables if 
judgment is exercised in cropping. 

A square rood (40 square rods) of ground will meet the wants of a 
small gentleman's house with eight or ten in the family, including 
servants. 

For large houses, with twenty or more to feed, a town house to 
supply, and a head gardener's family to be provided for, not to speak 
of occasional contributions to the labourers, 2 acres at least will be 
wanted, and even with that the Potatoes must be grown outside. 

The plans on pages 9, 10, and 12 offer suggestions for cropping 
plots of 20 rods, 4 acre, and 1 acre respectively. 

I turn to the other aspect of this question— the labour. How 
much ground can an active man manage, (1) in his spare time, (2) with 
his w^hole time ? 

1. To a certain extent it depends, naturally, on the amount of his 
spare time, but, speaking broadly, 20 rods is as much as can be 
properly managed. A man must be exceptionally energetic, and have 
a considerable amount of leisure, to do ^ acre well . 

2. With help on special occasions, a man who gave his whole time 
to 1 acre of ground ought to keep it well cropped and perfectly 
clean. 



C^apter 2*-$ucce$$!ona! Croppina* 

In the science of agriculture the cropping of the land proceeds, 
like a banquet, by " courses." There is, however, this significant differ- 
ence, that while in the feast each successive " course " leads on by 
steady and cheerful stages to the state of physical beatitude which 
to some people is represented by repletion; many cultiva- 
tors make their "courses"' items in the process of impoverish- 
ment. 

Rotation of crops'' is a phrase that is supposed to contain a well 



8UGGES8I0NAL GBOPPING, 



15 



of hidden meaning. Learn the theory of rotation, and you become a 
farmer (of a sort) straight away. You just move your crops about 
like pieces on a chess-board, and 

But before we see what happens, let us follow the fate of some 
beautiful chess theory that we have worked up. On the board 
of our brain the pieces move with automatic precision to our theory's 
triumphant end. The enemy obligingly moves his pieces just as he 
is wanted to, and becomes hopelessly entangled in the meshes which 
we have spread for him. 

In actual play things are exasperatingiy different. The enemy 
makes a lot of moves which we never anticipated, and by amazing 
luck (we are sure he does not really see our trap) keeps out of 
danger. 

The automatic, theory-ridden farmer has an opponent to reckon 
with when he sits down to the board, whose name is Nature. This 
player (we generally allude to it as of the feminine gender) has her 
own particular moves, and they are generally ones that he never 
expected. So many are the surprises sprung upon him by this subtle 
strategist that he is often driven to his wits' end for expedients to 
hold his own, and, perhaps, at last has to throw all his lovely 
problems to the winds, and trust to his native wit to save the 
situation. 

The rotation of crops in the garden, like that on the farm, is sub- 
ject to influences which are not under the grower's control. A good 
system is a grand thing, and we should all do well to get a sound 
theory into our minds, for at the worst it gives us a standard to work 
to, but at its best it is not everything. 

My chief objection to the theory of rotation of crops is that, set 
up to stand alone, it often leads to failure. There is a sort of sugges- 
tion that, as long as you shift your crops about from one year to another, 
you have done everything that need or can be done, and are 
sure of a satisfactory yield. It is a mischievous doctrine, and the 
man who follows it, whether he be farmer or gardener, has trouble 
ahead. 

If rotation of crops is preached in conjunction with high cultiva- 
tion, it becomes less objectionable, but at the same time less 
necessary, for highly cultivated ground will produce crops of the 
same kind continuously for many years. One of the greatest Potato 
growers who ever lived has stated that he has grown Potatoes on 
the same ground for many consecutive years, and the crop has not 
deteriorated in the slightest. I have grown Onions on the same 
piece of ground for five consecuiive years, and the crop has im^Droved 
annually. The same may be said of Scarlet Eunners. Broad Beans 
and Peas thrive well on the same ground year after year, always 
providing the soil is properly cultivated. 

Thick-and-thin supporters of change-cropping have a very 
awkward obstacle to get over in Asparagus. Here we have a plant 
which produces a great niaas of tibrous roots, and is therefore a gross 
feeder, yet no one would dream of shifting an Asparagus bed every 



16 PICTORIAL FBAGTICAL - VEGETABLE GROWING. 



year. As a matter of fact^ top-dressings will keep a bed going for 
periods varying from twenty to fifty years. 

The object of these remarks is not to disparage change-cropping, 
which is right enough as a theory ; it is to establish the fact that it is 
not the real key to success. You could do away with the change- 
course system altogether if your culture was good enough, but no 
amount of changing about would bring success if the culture was bad. 

It is my desire to give encouragement to those who, having small 
plots of vegetable ^ ground, are unable to bring into play those 
principles of rotation-cropping which some people advocate so 
eloquently. The theorist would aver that the principle is equally 
applicable to a piece of 10 rods and to one of as many acres ; but in 
this he would only prove that he is a theorist, and nothing better. 
Practical experience proves that with very small plots of ground it is 
impossible to effect the changes that are easily effected on large ones. 
There is an overlapping that the utmost ingenuity cannot smooth 
away. 

The value of rotation-cropping is claimed to be established in two 
directions— (1) avoiding soil exhaustion, (2) averting insect or fungoid 
attacks. 

1. Given ordinary farm culture, it is likely enough that there is a 
certain advantage from rotation-cropping, for at all times the food 
supply is limited ; but, given good garden culture, which is a very 
different thing, there is little or none, because the food supply is 
abundant. As much manure may be put. on the farm as on the 
garden land, yet the former will not be so fertile as the latter. An 
attempt may be made to prove, by the ash of a plant, that it abstracts 
a certain ingredient from the soil, and that if another class of crop, 
which does not extract the same ingredient, is not put upon the soil 
in place of the first, exhaustion must follow. The answer to this is 
(a) that the ash of a plant is no guide to its requirements ; and (b) 
even if it were, the matter would be of trifling consequence, inasmuch 
as a thoroughly tilled soil can never be exhausted. 

2. Change of ground is of far less value than is supposed in 
averting the attacks of insects and fungi. The majority approach the 
plant by means of the air, and not of the soil, and even in the case 
of the latter a change to a considerable distance is required to be of 
much use, and that is not possible in small vegetable gardens. The 
Carrot fly, the Celeiry fly, the Onion fly, the Cabbage butterfly — these 
and numerous other enemies come on the wing. Some pests, such as 
the club-root, certainly make their home in the soil, and attack the 
root, but shifting the crop which they attack to another part of a 
garden will not, as a rule, keep them away. Something else besides 
that is necessary, of which more later. 

The small cultivator cannot, as I say, secure the perfect rotation 
which is possible to the man with many fields. The nearest that he can 
get is as follows : He can divide his ground into three sections, a 
half and two quarters. The half he can devote to Potatoes, the two 
quarters respectively to tap roots (Beet, Carrots, Parsnips, and others) 



SUCGESSIONAL GBOFPmG. 



17 



and fibrous crops (Peas, Beans, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Celery, and 
the rest). The second year he could plant his Potatoes on the two 
quarters, and transfer his tap and fibrous rooted plants to the half, 
thus securing a change. 

I should like to add that in some of its aspects succession crop- 
ping is well worth studying. If ground is in first-rate mechanical 
condition it can be cropped up very closely and made to yield an 
enormous amount of produce. I herewith indicate a few examples. 

1. A piece of ground, planted with early Potatoes and cleared of 
them in June, may be sown with an early variety of Pea for a late 
crop, and this in turn followed by a sowing of Turnips. When cleared 
of the Turnips it will have a short fallow, and be ready for Carrots 
and Parsnips, without manuring, the following spring. 

2. A piece of ground under Onions, and cleared of them in August or 
September, may be planted with summer sown Cabbages in October. 
These, giving hearts in spring, may be cut and cleared oft', to be 
succeeded by late sown Carrots, which, sown even as late as July, give 
delicious little roots. Or the Cabbages may be left to yield greens 
until November. 

3. Ground under early Peas may be cleared of them in June, and 
planted with late Celery and Leeks. 

4. Ground sown with autumn Onions, or planted with Shallots in 
late winter, may be cleared of them in June and sown with Ptosette 
Colewort. 

5. Ground sown with Turnips in February or March may be 
cleared of them by June, and Celery planted, to be followed by Peas. 

Intercropping is frequently practised. The intercropping of 
Potatoes and winter Greens is a very common proceeding, but it often 
throws out elaborate schemes of rotations, as the Greens remain on 
the ground longer in spring than it is calculated that they will do. I 
am of opinion that the intercropping of Potatoes and Greens is best 
confined to dwarf varieties of the one and hardy kinds of the other. 
I do not approve of putting Broccoli betw^een late Potatoes. The 
shade and coolness of the Potato rows, no doubt, help to give the 
Broccoli a good start, but it is very apt to become drawn, in which 
state it will not be in good condition for enduring the rigours of a 
hard winter. 

Sowing Turnips and Spinach between Peas, and planting Lettuces 
on Celery ridges, are thoroughly legitimate examples of inter- 
cropping. 



B 



IS PIGTOBIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GBOWING. 



Cbapter 3 — fiou) to CtH m Soil, 

How to get double pay without doing double work is a problem 
wliicli lias harassed many a working man. 

It has likewise exercised the minds of a great many people who 
are not working men. 

It has never worried the gardener, because with him work always 
comes first, and pay is a detail of entirely secondary importance. He 
loves the work for its own sake. That is how it is that when you 
think of any operation which brings a good deal of hard work in its 
train you do not ask yourself whether you dare discuss such a subject 
amongst horticulturists or not — you only bethink you of methods of 
getting it to assume the aspect of a really stiff and solid proceeding, 
as only then is it worthy of their attention. 

After many years' experience, I have come to the conclusion that 
the visible signs and tokens of interest which gardeners display in 
operations connected with the cultivation of the soil may be summed 
up as follow : Plain digging — a sniff ; digging with fork versus 
spade— a slight air of attention ; trenching — one ear and one eye 
Avide open ; double trenching — both ears and eyes wide open ; double 
trenching with fork versus spade — fierce and excited interest. If it 
were possible to trench 20 feet deep, the meeting discussing the 
operation would never break up, but would argue strenuously all 
night. 

The various methods of preparing soil form a theme that never 
grows old. Political questions, theological polemics, economic 
theories, have their rise and fall as topics of interest, but tools and 
the uses of tools remain perennially fresh. Gardeners talked about 
them in the early days of the last century, when the man in the street 
was finding fault with the steps that the Government were taking to 
repel the projected visit of the turbulent Boney. They talked about 
it when Sebastopol was being hammered. They examined it in all 
its bearings while Roberts was marching to Cabul ; and still the 
subject is being thrashed out as ardently as ever. 

All experienced horticulturists are, I think, agreed as to the 
benefits of trenching ground ; the points of dispute, or perhaps I had 
better say of discussion, are the best ways of doing it and the best 
tools to do it with. By deepening the soil we let more air in than 
was able to penetrate before, and we thereby sweeten it, and enable 
the nitrifying organisms, without which plant food is of no value, to 
extend their sphere of influence. Thus the saying, not uncommon in 
some districts, that a good digging is equal to a coat of manure, is 
strictly true. In a well-dug soil there are far more nitrifying 
organisms than in a plou^ihed soil, and in a trenched soil there are 
more than in a dug soil. Thus digging would be better than ])lougli- 
ing, even if more manure were put into the ground under plough than 



TWO WAYS OF DIGGING, 



19 



under spade culture, because a more extended area of operations 
would be opened up for the bacteria. 

Is trenching equally as good for light as for heavy soiU It is 
better. You must trench a heavy soil to render it more pervious to 
air, and you must trench a light soil in order to enable it to hold more 
moisture. 

In trenching, is it wasteful to put the manure underneath the top 
spit ? Decidedly it is not. In light-land districts people are often 
afraid to put their manure down because it will all be washed into 
the subsoil." That is the very best place for it. Manure is not 
wanted near the surface of soil that has been under tillage for some 
years ; it is wanted down below, where, from want of tillage, the soil 
is lacking in fertility. 

Manure should not be worked into the top soil for two prime 
reasons : (1) The upper layer of earth is already relatively fertile, and 
may be made too fat ; (2) because it renders the upper soil drier than 
it would otherwise be. The great thing for the top layer of soil is 
tillage — trenching in autumn, followed by a light digging in spring. 
Tillage means pulverisation, pulverisation means plenty of air-cells, 
plenty of air-cells means food and moisture for the plant. 

When should ground be trenched ? Decidedly in autumn if it be 





PICTORIAL PRACTICE — 
PLAIN HINTS IN FEW WORDS. 

FIG. 4.-TW0 WAYS OF 
DIGGING. 

There are two ways of start- 
ing to dig a piece of ground : 
(1) To take out a spit of 
soil along the whole piece, 
wheel it to the other end, 
and there deposit it, so 
that it may be ready to fiU 
in the last space when the 
plot, begun from the other 
end, is finished ; (2) to 
divide the plot through 
the centre. A, take out a 
trench half-way across, «, ^, 
and deposit it at c?, then 
work up to /, fill the last 
trench there with soil from 
the opposite side, ^, work 
hack to A, and fill in with 
soil d. This is a very good 
plan, and will apply to 
trenching also. 



20 PIGTOBIAL PEAGTIOAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 

fallow then. There is nothing gained, but there may easily be some- 
thing lost, by leaving a considerable task like trenching till spring. 
In the first place, autumn trenching gives the soil time to settle down 
before it is cropped : freshly trenched soil is too loose for many 
crops. In the second place, the soil is usually drier and more work- 
able in autumn than in spring. In the third place, there is generally 
more labour available. When many urgent jobs are waiting in 
spring, a stiff one often gets shelved. 

What is the best tool for trenchingj Is the fork or the spade the 
more useful ? If trenching is trenching — if the trenches are really 
trenches — if the work is done not only thoroughly but cleanly, every 
trench being emptied before another is begun, both tools are wanted, 
but in soil with real body about it the better tool is the fork. It is 
the better, in my opinion, because with it the average man can shift 
more soil with a given expenditure of energy than he can with a 
spade. A man may be able to get through a specified area in a given 
time, and do his work conscientiously and well ; but if another man 
is able to do the same area equally well in the same time with a 
slighter expenditure of energy he is working on sounder principles. 

I have heard the fork spoken of as the lazy man's tool. Is it 
laziness to economise energy ? Why should a man waste his muscular 




B, heavy, tenacious soil ridged 

in autumn with a fork. 

C, the same not dug till spring ; 

its lumpy condition then. 

D, light soil dug with a spade. 

E, heavy soil (B) in spring after 



PICTORIAL PRACTICE— PLAIN 
HINTS IN FEW WORDS. 

FIG. 5.-H0W TO DIG HEAVY 
AND LIGHT SOIL. 



being pulverised by frost 
and forked over. 



HOW TO DIG SLOFIXG GROUXD. 



21 



power and vitality, wlien he would deem it foolish to waste his 
money 1 The everyday political economist believes in getting the 
value of twelve pennies for every shilling that he spends : why, there- 
fore, should he only get the value of ten pennies for every shilling's 
worth of his bodily strength that he expends ? 

It is because I am a believer in the application of sound 
economical principles to every atiair of workaday life that I believe 
in the fork for trenching, but I am not going to c^uarrel with the 
person who disagrees with me. 

Xo tool, perhaps, is the best on all classes of soil. You do not see 
the labourer digging with a fork on the sand-dunes of Holland. You 
do not even see him digging with a spade. He uses a shovel. The 
moral is perhaps sufficiently obvious, that circumstances alter cases ; 
that some soils want one tool, and some another, if they are to be 
dealt with in the most practical and economical way. This is 
certainly true in my experience. 




PICTOEIAL PRACTICE. — PLAIN HINTS IN 
FEW WOHDS. 

FIG. 6.-H0W TO DIG SLOPING GROUND. 

F, a sharp slope : i, starting with a trench 
running from top to bottom. — the riaht 
way ; j\ starting with a trench along the 
bottom — the wrons' wav. 



It is a somewhat peculiar fact that every man who has a stiff soil 
to deal with always thinks that it is stiffe4^ than anyone else's ; much 
on the same principle, I suppose, that each person considers that his 
l^articular class of cold in the head is of a far more acute form than 
other people's cold in the head. After experience with various 
samples, I am disposed to think that the clays of Knockholt in Kent, 
of Capel in Surrey, and of Crawley in Sussex, are capable of holding 
their own with most. The men of Capel will tell you that the fork 
will not shift their paste, but break up under the strain, and that 
nothing short of the strongest spade made is of any use to them. 

Soil tillage is not completed with the operation of trenching. It 
is thoroughly well begun, that is all. The soil should be left rough for 
the winter, and at odd times, when material ufftrs, burnt stuff from 
the garden tires, or. soot, or mortar rubbish, should be thrown on it. 
Under this treatment the upper spit will break down beautifully in 
spring with nothmg more than an easy forking. 

Supposing th:".t trenL'hing cannot be done in autumn, is spring 
altogether too late ] It is never too late to trench. ' I have done it in 
April, with the ground so wet that gullies had to be cut to get the 
water out of the trenches, and failure deep and dire was prognosti- 



22 FIGTOEIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWLNG. 



cated by everybody except the labourers ayIio Avere hired for the job. 
Good results followed. There are drawbacks, to be sure, with spring 
as compared with autumn trenchiug, but they do not outweigh the 
advantages. 

It goes without saying, I hope, that the system adopted should be 
one that shifts at least two spits, and yet keeps them iu their 
relative positions. Xo turning the top spit down, it you please, and 
nothing less than 20 inches of soil to be thoroughly moved ; 3'j inches 
preferred. As a principle, remember that the lighter the soil the 
deeper the trenching should be. 

There is a fine gusto about the business that proves infectious. 
Trenching yields the enjoyment of rude health, and the mental 
exhilaration of a perfect digestive process. 

If the reader wants to start a topic of interest at his next 
^' mutuaV let him raise the question of left or right-handed digdng 
— I mean, digging with the left or the right hand at the bottom of 
the tool. The model digger is he who can dig easily and rapidly 
either way, but how many are there of him? Xot many, I fear. It 
is not to be expected, perhaps. There are great left-handed and 
great right-handed bowlers, but. in my experience of the summer 
game, which extends from the days of Jupp and Alorley. I have never 
yet seen a man disporting himself on the cricket sward in first-class 
matches who could bowl well with either hand. Yet ambidexterity 
with the spade is an accomplishment well worth learning. 




FIG. 7.-A DIGGER'S 
BOOT PROTECTOR. 



It is made out of an 
old spade ; <7, the 
outline : '\ the re- 
in :n:a: _ V : :oemade 
int'j u aper (see 
3). straps fixed 
to the raised ed2:es 
of the piece after 
cutting out. 



EBBOBS IN MANVBlJSra. 23 



Cbapter 4 — Cbouabts about iKatiuring, 

The reduction of manuring to an exact science proceeds apace, but a 
good deal of water will run under the Forth Bridge before the average 
cultivator has made up his mind that it is worth while to look twice 
at a manure heap. 

There is no class more difficult to influence than that which has 
secured a certain result by a certain course of procedure. " Leave 
well alone" is its motto. It is not a bad one, I admit, but I should 
not agree to leave well alone when, by giving it up, better could be 
done. The cry is on all-fours with such old and crusted ones as 
^'Slow and sure" (as if swift and sure were not far better) ; "A bird 
in the hand's worth two in the bush" (is not a bird in each hand 
superior to either and so forth. 

Admitting that the man who takes refuge behind a series of old 
saws is difficult to dislodge, it by no means follows that it is not 
worth w^hile to make the attempt. If we cannot catch him, we can 
at all events build blockhouses of hard, well-proven fact around him, 
so that his movements may be hampered, and he may work less 
direct mischief. 

Of the two errors, it is easier to give too much manure than too 
little, consequently there is an appalling waste of good material 
going on in our gardens year by year. Moreover, as it is easier to 
give manure at the wrong time than the right, it follow^s as a natural 
sequence that most of our manuring is done at the wrong time. 

The majority of people get into a w^ay of thinking that the truth 
about manuring lies in the comparative merits of artificials versus 
dung. That is the point which would rise to the minds of most if 
they were asked to state the most important ground of debate. It 
is a consideration, to be sure, but since a harmonious and economical 
manuring system must inevitably bring into use both classes of 
fertiliser, it follows that the problem of finding it cannot be solved 
by setting up one against the other, and seeing which can be the 
more quickly demolished by hard pummelling, 

I have said that it is not only common to use too much manure, 
but to apply it at the wrong time. To take the case of Peas, as an 
example, the average cultivator would, if he used only one class of 
manure (and that dung), use three or four times as much of it as is 
wanted. On the other hand, if he used both dung and artificials, he 
would put the former on in spring, and the latter in late spring 
or early summer, whereas the former should be used in autumn and 
the latter in late winter. 



24 FICTOIUAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 



In tackling a big, practical .problem I must, of course, guard 
against enunciating a cultural fallacy for the sake of securing a 
literary antithesis. Let me, therefore, examine the position. We 
manure land, not for the purpose of putting out of sight a certain 
quantity of dung, but for securing a crop ; therefore, the primary 
consideration is not what we put into the ground, but what we take 
out of it. We might bury one load of dung in a square rod of 
ground, or we might bury two, but the measure of our wisdom would 
not be estimated by that : it would be calculated according to the 
excellence of the crop. This is premiss Xo. 1. 

A plant is supported by the food which its roots take up in a 
liquid form, and that food is prepared for it by a very remarkable 
culinary staff, termed nitrifying organisms. The process of " cook- 
ing is called nitrification. If the kitchen staff is large and efficient 
the plant is well fed ; if weak, the plant is badly nourished. The 
nourishment of the plant, therefore, does not depend upon the 
amount of raw food material which is put into the soil, but in the 
strength of the cooking staff. That is premiss No. 2. 

As the cooking staff is of at least equal importance to raw food, 
measures must not only be taken to increase the food supply, but to 
strengthen the staff of cooks. That is premiss No. 3. 

Now w^e come to ways and means. The method of putting food 
into the soil — one method, any way — we all know ; but methods of 
adding to the staff' of cooks we do not always know. 

The practical cultivator long ago found himself face to face with a 
rather curious phenomenon. He manured his soil, and improved his 
crop. He manured his soil more, and got a still better crop. He 
manured even more heavily, and then, instead of getting a heavier 
crop in the same proportion as he had before, he got a smaller crop, 
and one not so healthy. He fell into a way of speaking of ground 
which had got into the condition of refusing to yield better crops 
after a certain point as "manure sick.'^ 

What had happened was this : He had crammed the larder with food, 
but had not increased his staff of cooks, wdio were overworked in con- 
sequence. Under the unwholesome conditions present in the soil they 
dwindled instead of increasing, and so things went from bad to worse. 

The cooking staff in the soil can be increased by the provision of 
warmth and air. An inert, hard-grained, brick-in-summer-and-paste- 
in-winter soil contains little warmth and little air, consequently few 
cooks. Break it up, turn it, expose it, and both warmth and air 
penetrate ; then the cooks troop in, tie on their aprons, and set to 
work. In many soils there is abundance of raw material for them 
already existing, and more need not be added. I have observed wuth 
much interest how readily a soil, neglected for years, half-tilled, un- 
manured, and altogether impoverished, has responded to tillage 
alone, giving excellent crops Avith very little manure. To attempt to 
renovate neglected soil by simply cramming in manure is wasteful 
and unscientific. 

The plan which the cultivator adopts to cure manure-sick soil 



AN EXPEBniEXTAL PLOT. 



25 



is to add lime. It is au old plan. The lime acts on the manure, 
and sets free its food constituents, so that it really feeds the crop. 
Yes, liming is good, but it always strikes me as a very cumbrous and 
roundabout T^-ay of keeping healthy to flr-t of all ignore the rules of 
health and then swallow medicine to remedy the iireffects of neglect. 
\\hy not learn the rules of good health first, and observe them / 

To give too much manure, and then have to add lime to put 
matters right, is surely a very clumsy way of going to work. 

The application of the ideas of manuring herewith thrown out 
could, doubtless, be made Avith satisfactory re-ults by many intel- 
ligent cultivators, but it will, perhaps, be mc»:i .satisfactory to point 
them by practical details, followed by hints on each particular crop. 

I have said that the manuring problem is not merely the issue 
betvreen natural and artificial manures. As a matter of fact, both 
provide the same constituents. Good crops of vegetables can be 
obtained with either or both. Tne man who declares that only 
natural manure is of any use, and he who says the same c-f 
artificials, are both in the wrong. Some crops do particularly well 
with natural manures, others seem to thrive admirably' with 
artificials, but many crops do best with a judicious blend of both. 
^Yhat is wanted is exact knowledge. 

We ought, I think, to put our vegetables into groups in order to 
get into a proper position for suiting their reciuirements. 

Group Xo. 1 might be that class of vegetables which develop by 
swelling rapidly underground, and the roots of Avhich are exceedingly 
susceptible to external influences. This is a very important group, 
because it includes Potatoes, Carrots, Parsnips, and Beets. Coarse, 



FIG. 8.-AN EXPERIMENTAL PLOT. 



L 



1 R0.V5 

c A s : , - s 



o^yoNS 
NAiL5ACf?AlG 
i 5 ROWS 

LEEKS 

'CauL'.FLQV.ERS 
WINTER GRELNS 

^^PCTATOES 



A I B 



m 



\1 



miiilit be dung alone; LB diing with artificials: IT, 
artificial mixture with potash omitted: III., w'th p:. 
IV., with nitrates omitted; Y. might contain a c- 
VI., no manure at ail. See remarks on manimng. 



Here is a pLjt 
divided into six 
differently man- 
ured sections : 
I., II., III.. IV., 
V.^VI. Plotl. 
issabdivided. A. 
B. Have the 
crops running 
in rows across 
each section, so 
that it can be 
seen at a glance 
which manure 
suits best. I. A 



mplcte mixture 



26 riCTOEIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 



rank manure, or gritty, inorganic particles, such as stones and 
cinders, are bad for these crops, leading to scaV>. forking, and canker. 

Group Xo. 2 might comprise those which swell up a great deal of 
fleshy, succulent matter at or near the surface, such as Celery, Leeks, 
Turnips, and Onions. 

Group Xo. 3 could be composed of vegetables which make a good 
deal of growth in the air, and expose a considerable amount of leaf 
surface to the atmosphere, such as Beans and Peas. 

Group Xo. 4 is made up of vegetables with very coarse leaf 
growth, such as Cabbag-s. Caulitiowers. and Winter Greens. 

Group X'). 5 might be composed of fruit-bearing crops, such as 
Cucumbers. Tomatoes, and Vegetable Marrows. 

I cannot imagine any one system of manuring suiting such diverse 
crops as these equally well, nor, to be brit;f, is there one. Group 
Xo. 1 is suited by very little dung, and that only well decayed, 
friable, and dry. Finely ground artificials are the best. Groups 
Xos. 2 and 4 will take dung, rich, and plenty of it. Group Xo. 3, 
contrary to general belief, will thrive spkndidly without dung, and 
needs, as a matter of fact, very little of any sort. Group Xo. 5 
wants abundance of potash — far jiiore than dung yields— and, there- 
fore, artificials may be turned to with advantage. 

These, it will be understood, are generalisations. An intelligent 
cultivator Avho took them as a guide, and worked out the details for 
him>elf. would douV.tle>s get satisfactory returns, but it may be 
interesting to particularise a little. 

Artichokes.— The Chinese, the Jerusalem, and the Globe Arti- 
chokes present us with considerable difterences. The first two 
certainly approximate, but the gulf between them and the Globe is 
wide. Chinese and Jerusalem Artichokes do not need heavily 
dunged ground. A well-tilled soil will yield a full crop of sound, 
finely flavoured tubers if dressed with decayed stufi' once in three 
years. Heavy applications of dung may increa-e the crop, but the 
tubers are coarse iri appearance and rank m taste.- Globe Artichokes 
enjoy liberal dressings of dung. 

Asparagus. — We have here a somewhat uncommon vegetable- 
one difficult to group. It has the sort of fibrous, matted rootstock 
which generally takes up large stores of food from the soil, and 
might, therefore, be expected to be quite at honie with good dressings 
of dung. But there is something more than dung required Ijv 
Asparagus. The fact thcit it will thrive without dung in some 
places, and will resolutely refuse to thrive with it in others, is a 
proof of thi.s. The crop has some resemblance to Peas in its general 
characters. It dislikes a heavy, cold bottom ; and it very mudi 
appreciates a moisture-laden atmosphere. Success liardly turns on 
manuring, therefore, but rather on drainage and atmc^spheric 
humidity. However, manuring is our subject just now. Other 
things being right, Asparagus will do well if dressed every autumn 
with a mixture of short, dry, crumbly manure (not rank stufi") 
and burnt rubbish, followed in spring by a dressing of salt and 



MAKING LIQUID MANURE. 



27 



nitrate of soda, 2 oz. of the former and 1 oz. of the latter per 
square yard, but salt should not be used on wet land. 

Beans. — In the main, the raanurial treatment that suits Peas 
will suit Beans, and they may, therefore, be considered together. 

Beetroot. — A grossly over- manured crop. In my opinion, a 
man, tilling his soil well, who kept manure away from his Beet 
altogether for ten years, would get 50 per cent, more usable, saleable, 
and show roots than another who manured his ground every season. 
Beet, Carrots, and Parsnips want a deep, finely pulverised soil, and 




FIG. 9.-AN EASY WAY OF 
MAKING LIQUID 
MANURE. 

This consists of a perforated 
tin A containing sheep 
droppings or other man- 
ure, fixed over a wooden 
bucket B and under a 
tap. 

The weak liquid manure 
resulting is safe for nearly 
all plants. 



nothing else. People sometimes think that they put a formidable 
poser when they ask about barren, hungry, neglected land. They do 
nothing of the sort. True, I recommend a little manure in such 
cases, but I always advise them to put it at least 15 inches below 
the surface. I know, do you see, that if they shift the soil deep 
enough to get the manure buried more than 1 foot deep, they must 
till the soil pretty well ; and I also know that if I did not give them 
an object in shifting so much soil they v/ould not do it. As a 
matter of fact, a mixture of superphosphate, sulphate of potash, 
nitrate of soda, and bone flour, in the proportions of 3, 2, 1, 1 



28 PICTOBIAL PEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



respectively, applied at the rate of 3 oz. per square yard, would 
do equally as well ; but if I mentioned this alone, it would be 
scuffled in about 6 inches deep, and little good done. 

Cabbages and Greens Generally.— Borecole, Broccoli, Brussels 
Sprouts, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, and Savoys constitute a group of 
the highest value. Collectively they come next to the Potato in 
importance, for they give us an all-the-year-round supply of delicious 
and wholesome food. The judge at the flower show cuts open the 
Cabbages on view, sees one pair with a considerable amount of close, 
white "grain," and another that is largely composed of stalk, and 
gives first prize to the former ; it is hard to disagree with him, for 
the white-grained Cabbage is the better cultural example. But — 
such is my vicious taste — it is the tender, melting, marrowy stalk 
which, on the table, aflords me the real temptation. The mellow 
pulp in the very heel of the stem is to me what I suppose the G bone 
(or is it the H bone ?) is to the beef lover. Eich yard dung will give 
you very fine Greens, because the nitrogenous elements foster leaf 
growth. So, however, will nitrates in concentrated artificial form, 
such as nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia. I am a great 
believer in the latter for Cabbages. It is a splendid fertiliser for 
Greens, encouraging the plants to make vigorous growth, and 
impartiug a fine burnished hue to the leaves. But if, like myself, 
you love pith in your Cabbages, think of potash. By increasing it 
and reducing nitrates, yoM get less foliage, but more " bone." In a 
well-tilled soil 3 parts of kainit and 1 part of sulphate of ammonia, 
3 oz. per square yard, give good Cabbages, not large, but remarkably 
nice in flavour. 

Carrots. — The remarks as to Beet apply, and need not be 
repeated. I shall, however, have some fresh points about Carrots 
to discuss when I come to general culture. 

Celery. — I am at hopeless war with the manure cart champions 
in connection with this vegetable. They would not eat an oyster if 
fchey knew that the succulent bivalve came from a bed wdthin a 
hundred miles of a town drain, but they will eat Celery out of a 
trench which they themselves have packed with dung and drenched 
with sewage ! Visions of typhoid fever appal them in the first case, 
but have no terrors at all in the second. It is all very odd to me. 
Now, Celery happens to be a crop which I grow in quantities quite 
out of proportion to the amount in the average garden, largely 
because in my household it is esteemed as a cooked vegetable ; but 
even cooked I cannot appreciate dung-grown Celery. It is rank and 
coarse, to my taste, and entirely lacks the tender sweetness of 
artiticial-fed produce. As to eating Celery raw that has come out of 
a richly manured trench, and, highly fed with sewage, has grown to 
huge and bloated proportions — faugh ! I want very badly to fight 
the hoary and anticpiated belief that respectable Celery cannot be 
grown without loads upon loads of dung. It can. it has been, it will 
be again. I grant that Celery, from its nature and its extremely 
fibrous root action, revels in manure, especially of a liquid nature. I 



A LIQUID MAXURE CASK 



29 



agree that the finest-looking produce is got from the deep, dung-lincd 
trench, into whiuh, through a hose, the industrious groover Can p-ur 
Wack sewage from his drainage tank. I know it AVtlL be:'au-- I 
have seen it all done, and v ^ " ^l::.t self-j.me grower receive his 
prize afterwards. But I do . , . ;_'hj.:ically d-ny th^.t goc-d Celery 
can only be grown in that v\-ay. I have iitver won a prize with 
Celery (I could not very well, because I havc n-ver sh'i'wn it . but in 
a soil much too dry to suit the p'.aot^ lu rurally I have grown stuff 
that would, I think, be regar'icd a- .-at:-:a':t-My in respect to size, anc 
as beyond all comparisC'U irom the dun---rL^v,-n -tuii a- to tiavour, 
There is the true Kentish Fil':-rt taste about it— louc of yourcau-of- 
season, mouldy Brazils. Ii you ^^t vour Celery along early (more 
about this later) and, in the al^sence o: rains, can give a good soakin^ 
occasionally, never fear but that credita'Ce C.l-ry can be produced 
with nothing more elaborate than steamed l-jne liour and nitrate 
of soda in ecjual parts, one handful to each yard C'f tr-nch. 

Cucximbers. — A little well -decayed manure may be mixed with 
the compost for Cucumber^, but if -om^ o-jarse. rough, lumpy loam 
can be got for those under gla^-. and -ulphrrce of potash at the rate 
of one pint per bushel is thoroughly inceap'jrated with it by repeated 
turnings, no fat, greasy mixture which can be concocted will grow 
such crops. Cucumber soil should always be lumpy, never finely 




B 



no. lO.-ANOTHER WAY OF 
MAKING LIQUID MANURE. 





Get a paraffin cask, cliar 




A 




30 PIGTOBIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GEOWING, 



pulverised, as in the latter case it is apt to settle too close round the 
stem, and lead to canker. Give a top-dressing of the same mixture 
when the roots show at the surface of the mound, and the plants 
will fruit abundantly if the general culture is right. The latter is 
a theme on which I hope to discourse soon. 

Leeks. — I need not repeat the remarks made under Celery. 
They apply, substantially. 

Onions. — The Onion is a plant which loves to send its roots far 
below the surface. ^Yhen it gets its toes well braced into sound 
British soil it is a happy plant, and the man who owns the ground is 
happy too when he sees a forest of huge leaves spreading before his 
ej'es, and plump bulbs swelling beneath them. If he makes the plant 
its deep bed in autumn or winter, it matters little what sort of 
manure he puts into it, or if he stands with his hands in his pockets 
all the following summer. Whatever happens, those Onions are 
going to grow ! I have just said that I never in my life exhibited 
Celery. On reflection, I believe I am wrong, but it was long ago, 
and not for competition anyway. I have exhibited Onions — two 
pounders, two-and-a-half pounders, yes, and bigger even than these. 
On the same deep bed Onions on dung and Onions on artificials 
came about of a size— an ounce lost here, an ounce gained there, is 
about the measure of it. I give here my favourite Onion mixture, 
with a regret that it is a little complicated : \\ part of superphos- 
phate of lime, 1 part of saltpetre (nitrate of potash), h a part each of 
steamed bone flour, nitrate of soda, and gypsum (sulphate of lime), the 
whole mixed and applied at the rate of 7 lb. per square rod, under 
the top spit, at trenching time. 

Parsnips, — The remarks made under Beet have a good general 
application. The unwholesome - looking brown blotches on the 
shoulders of Parsnips, known as canker, are always the worst in 
freshly dunged ground. Moreover, forking of the roots, expressively 
termed " spronkiness" by our cottagers, is directly due to dung. 

Peas.— I cannot believe that the general system of manuring 
Peas is based on true principles of garden economy. I believe 
three parts of the manure used to be unnecessary, and therefore 
wasteful. The fact that fine crops of Peas may be, and are, grown 
with the use of dung, proves nothing at all. The thick and-thin sup- 
porters of the manure cart erroneously think that it proves every- 
thing. In common, doubtless, with many others, I am constantly 
hearing or reading of Pea growers who have trenched or double trenched 
for their Peas, and have worked in a heavy dressing of dung. As a result, 
they are able to point to some very fine pods, and they do so, often 
with triumph. There is nothing whatever strange in this, nor does it 
influence me in the slightest degree. If it comes to that, 1 have 
done the same thing myself in the past. I do not question the 
merits of the gentlemen in question as Pea growers, but as garden 
economists. E iually as fine Peas may be grown without the dung 
as with it, and equally as many may be grown. In short, it is not 
the dung that does the work. It may be argued by some : " If we 



A LIQUID MANURE LADLE. 



31 



do not use dung for tlie Peas we must use artificials : we can get 
dung for nothing, but artificials we should have to buy : how now, 
Sir Critic V The answer is easy. Even if dung may be got without 
purchase, it is still wasteful to use it when a better purpose can be 
found for it, and, as to artificials, they are no more a necessity than 
dung. The great want of the Pea plant is moisture. If a man with 
unlimited dung to work into his ground were to apply it in the top 
spit, without trenching, and a very dry spring and summer were to 
follow, he would have no guarantee whatever of a good crop. The 
probability is that it would be a very poor one. If another man 
used no dung all, but trenched his ground, and when early 
summer came soaked his trenches and mulched his plants with loose 
soil, he would most likely have a very good crop. The man who can 
keep his Peas growing when dry weather comes is the man whose 



plants ward off thrips, red spider, and mildew. No solids will keep 
them growing, but liquids will. A Pea plant that has moisture can 
afford to laugh at manure. The successful Pea grower's routine 
generally comprises three things— trenches or trenching, dung, liquid 
manure. When he succeeds, he almost invariably, by some 
mysterious process of reasoning, works it out that dung has done 
the work. In reality, it is the other two. I have proved, by 
repeated and careful experiments, that the finest of both garden and 
Sweet Peas may be grown by the following simple plan : First 
trench the ground, doing this in autumn ; in February line out the 
rows where the Peas are to come, and take out 9 inches of soil, laying 
it along the side of the trench ; sprinkle along the bottom of the 
trench superphosphate at the rate of one handful to the yard. 
Leave the super to become precipitated, and the soil on the edge of 
the trench to sweeten for about three weeks ; then put back half the 
soil, sow the seeds on it, and cover them not less than 2 inches deep. 
Leave the remainder of the soil where it is until a spell of dry 




FIG. 11. -A LIQUID 
MANURE LADLE. 



This handy little 
dipper is useful 
for ladling liquid 
manure out of 
buckets or tubs. It 
is made of an old 
tin, fitted with a 
handle in the form 
of a piece of stick. 



32 PICTOBIAL PRAOTIGAL VEGETABLE] GROWING. 



weather sets in, then soak the trenches and mulch Avith the spare soil. 
If the Peas are thinly grown, and the shoots are topped, immense 
pods will swell up, and if liquid manure, whether natural or artificial, 
is supplied from time to time, the plants will go on growing and 
bearing. As regards the abstract comparative merits of natural and 
artificial manures for Peas, I am inclined to favour the former foi 
early and the latter for late produce. I am aware that the general 
opinion is to the contrary, but I believe it to be wrong. On rows of 
Sweet Peas manured half their length wuth dung and half with 
artificials, I have noticed that the former are flowering first and the 
latter last. And this has beeu very clearly and distinctly marked, too. 
Soil in which dung is decaying is probably warmer and drier than 
soil without it. The warmth would be in favour of early develop- 
ment, but the drought would militate against continuance. In 
speaking of artificials as being slower in action than dung, and 
therefore suiting late Peas better, earlier not quite so well, I must 
take care to make it clear that I allude to such fertilisers as super- 
phosphate, bone flour, and kainit. Nitrogenous manures, like 
nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, would act more quickly, 
but their use ought to be limited to coaxing a plant along through 
the medium of liquid manure when, in the midst of a hard struggle 
with drought, it is inclined to languish. 

Potatoes.— One never realises the absurdity of indiscriminate 
manuring more fully than when he observes the difference between 
the development of a Potato and, say, a Brussels Sprout. In the 
former case we have a vegetable which forms its crop underground, 
developing from tiny, tender tubercles on thin, stoloniferous stems ; 
in the latter a plant which forms its crop aboveground on a strong, 
fleshy stem. The Potato tubercles come into actual contact with the 
manure in the soil unless it be buried to a good depth ; the Brussels 
Sprout does not do so. The method of development of the Potato 
crop^ — the lateral expansion, so to say, of the tubers — should teach 
that the soil favourable to it is one of a very friable, yielding nature, 
and that a stiff", stubborn, clinging soil is unsuitable. On the other 
hand, a firmer medium is necessary for Brussels Sprouts. The 
tenderness of the Potato tubercle should teach another thing, 
namely, that sharp particles in the soil, such as cinders, are bad, 
because the soft skin is liable to be scratched, and admission aflforded 
to the growth of the scab fungus. The more we study the Potato 
the more clearly w^e realise that the first essential to success is a 
well-drained and finely pulverised medium. With respect to manure, 
it is not unreasonable to demur to the practice of applying rank, wet 
dung so late, and at so shallow a depth, that it comes into actual 
contact with the tubers. Dung may be used for Potatoes with, good 
results, but it should be well clecayed, and trenched in a foot below 
the surface several weeks in advance of cropping. It should never 
be used in the drills unless very short, dry enough to handle without 
unpleasantness, and quite crumbly. In such a state it will, if mixed 
with burnt rubbish from the garden fire, and sweepings from a 



A FIXE BEETROOT. 



33 



FIG. 12. -THIS FINE 
BEETROOT WAS 
PRODUCED BY 
TRENCHING, NOT 
BY DUNGING. 



potting shed, be suitable for applying ^Yhen the 
drills are drawn. In any state, however, I 
believe that manure for Potatoes is best 
trenched in. Artificial manures yield crops 
of fine quantity and quality when the ground 
is thoroughly cultivated, and so well have I 
been satisfied with the result of applying care- 
fully blended mixtures, and so convenient are 
these where yard manure of the right Cjuality 
is difficult to get, that I have had no hesitation 
in trusting to them absolutely. I could name 
several mixtures that have given admirable 
yields of produce, but the following are perhaps 
the pick : — 

Xo. 1. 

Si parts of superphosphate of lime 

2 kainit 

li sulphate of ammonia 

Xo. 2. 

3 parts of superphosphate 
Ih „ sulphate of potash 
14 „ nitrate of soda 

1 ,, steamed bone flour 

In each case they should be well mixed and 
applied at the rate of 7 lb. to 10 lb. per square 
rod (30t square yards), preferably in winter, 
but I have applied them in the drills at 
planting time with satisfactory results, and 
this is a very convenient plan. I have more 
than once been told, in each case by gentlemen 
who grow all their Potatoes in the study, with 
a pen for a spade, and an inkpot for a trench, 
that the quantities recommended are too great, 
and that 3 lb. per square rod will give equally 
good results. In inkpots it may do ; in the 
garden it does not. There are two main reasons 
why people fail with artificials— the first and 
greatest is that owing. to the facility with which 
these fertilisers can be got into the ground, 
the soil is only half cultivated ; the second is 
that not half enough is used. To succeed, the 
same good spade-work must be brought into 
play that yields success when dung is the 
manurial factor, and fair quantities must be 
used. One point more : We are often advised 
to use our phosphatic and potassic fertilisers 
in winter, and our nitrogenous ones at the 
time of the first earthing. I leaned to the plan 



34 PICTORIAL PEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GBOWING. 



myself once, but I have abandoned it, for reasons that seem to 
me to be sound and sufficient : (1) The application is very liable 
to be forgotten when the right moment comes ; (2) it is not in any 
way superior to dressing at planting time. 

Tomatoes.— The majority of cultivators have got pretty near to 
the truth on the manuring question with one crop alone, and that 
happens to be the Tomato. It is generally recognised that very 
little manure is advisable, otherwise the plants will be leafy and 
prone to disease. This is a true view. What puzzles me is that 
people never seem to think of applying it to other crops as well. A 
plethoric, dung-pampered plant is rarely better, as a cultivated 
specimen, than one which has to develop under a more modest 
regimen, and it is far more liable to disease. Tomatoes certainly do 
not want dung ; in fact, they require very little manure of any sort, 
especially when grown out of doors. The ordinary soil of a well- 
tilled kitchen garden will give splendid crops, even if the plants be 
grown on the same ground several years running. This I have 
proved in my own culture. Plants in pots may have a little 
stimulant when they are swelling up their crop, but it should be 
rather of a potassic than a nitrogenous nature. Tomatoes like potash, 
and it may be given to them in one of several forms, e.g. kainit, 
sulphate of potash, and muriate of potash. The sulphate suits them 
admirably, and may be mixed with superphosphate of lime in equal 
parts, and 1 pint of the mixture incorporated with each bushel of 
compost. Good loam alone will grow excellent Tomatoes, and in 
this case a little liquid manure may be given when the crop is 
swelling. 

Vegetable Marrows. — Through some unwritten and inscrutable 
law, it has come to be believed that the dung bed is the natural home 
of the Vegetable Marrow. I pointed out the fallacy of it all years 
ago, and I do so again now. In a hot, dry season a dung bed is 
about the worst place possible for Vegetable Marrows. They are 
thirsty plants, and when in free growth and bearing they must be 
able to suck large quantities of moisture into their strong stems, or 
they will shrivel, or cast the young fruit. A cubic yard of litter will 
not hold a fraction of the moisture held by a cubic yard of properly 
tilled soil, therefore it is not so good for Vegetable Marrows. I 
denounce the dung bed as an ideal Marrow home. The idea is 
wrong, and full of mischief. The production of two or three huge, 
bloated Marrows proves nothing. A few fat monsters do not make 
a crop. What constitutes a crop is an incessant supply of tender, 
high-flavoured Marrows from July till the plants are killed by frost 
in October or November. You cannot get this in a dry district in a 
dry season from a dung bed ; you can without it. With the dung 
bed you may be able to force the plants along early. You may be 
able to show an ugly brute the size of a boarliound's body at a July 
exhibition, but you will not thereafter be cutting Marrows in 
abundance daily for three consecutive months. The plants will be 
dried up, their energies exhausted, long before. I do not object to a 



CHEMICAL FERTILISERS. 



35 



little dung being dug into the soil for Marrows if anyone likes to do 
it, but it is not necessary.^ 

In reference to this point, I had the best Marrow bed of my life in 
1901. It was established on well-dug but unmanured soil. The 
plants were a little slow in starting, and we only cut one or two odd 
fruits in July, but when they fairly got going they never stopped 
until a sharp frost blackened them about the middle of October. 
They grew incessantly and vigorously, sending out great, strong, 
sprawling shoots in all directions. One plant covered a square rod 
of ground, and would have covered a good deal more if it had not 
been checked ; while as to crop, it never stopped bearing while it 
lived, and on one occasion I counted a dozen fruits on an area of less 
than a square yard. 



The remarks herewith made on the manuring question may be 
summarised as follows : — 

(1) Manuring (i.e. the application of dung and chemical fertilisers) 
is not the real secret of fertility. 

(2) Manure will not compensate for the absence of thorough 
cultivation. 

(3) Manuring is a useful adjunct to tillage. 

(4) In general, the present system of manuring is wasteful and 
unscientific. 

(5) Vegetable crops may usefully be sectionised for feeding 
purposes. 

(6) With good tillage equally satisfactory results may be secured 
with " artificials " as with clung. 

Notes on Chemical Fertilisers. 

The knowledge that chemical manures have been used with highly 
successful results in vegetable growing, and may be in other cases if 
a proper system is adopted, cannot fail to prove of interest to large 
numbers of people. Except to those who keep stock, or are in a 
position to make a contract for a large supply of yard or stable 
manure, the article is difficult to get of good quality at a reasonable 
price ; moreover, it is bulky, and awkward and expensive to handle. 
There is an idea that country gardeners have no trouble in the 
matter, but this is erroneous. Farmers and stockkeepers have 
manure, professional gardeners can often command a supply, but the 
majority of other cultivators are often driven to extremities from the 
want of the wherewithal to fertilise the ground. 

Chemical manures are inferior to yard manure in s'ome respects, 
and superior in others. In some soils yard manure is valuable from 
its mechanical action, and because in its decay warmth is given out. 
On the other hand, chemicals are easily accessible, cheap, portable, 
cleanly, and of concentrated power. 

Nitrogenous Fertilisers. — The two great nitrogenous manures 
are nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia. After several years of 



36 PIOTOBIAL PEAGTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



experimenting I have come to the conclusion that all others may be 
dispensed with. It is troublesome to stock many kinds. Taking one 
year with another, these fertilisers cost me ten shillings per hundred- 
weight. The average quantity used (generally in conjunction with 
other fertilisers) is Ih lb. per square rod. 

Phosphatic Fertilisers. — The most generally useful all-round 
manure in this section is superphosphate of lime ; average price per 
hundredweight, five shillings ; average quantity per square rod, 3 to 
4 lb. Steamed bone flour is valuable to use in conjunction with 
superphosphate, for the reason that sulphuric acid is used in the 
manufacture of superphosphate, and at times a modicum of free acid 
is left, which acts injuriously, unless absorbed by a little bone flour. 
Steamed bone flour is insoluble in water, and therefore it cannot be 
turned to account, as superphosphate can be, for liquid manure : more- 
over, owing to the very fine state to which it is reduced, it requires 
to be handled with great care, otherwise clouds of disagreeable dust 
will arise ; but it is quick-acting, and altogether an exceedingly valu- 
able manure. The average price is six to seven shillings per hundred- 
weight, and the average quantity to use per rod (in conjunction with 
other manures) is 1 lb. Basic slag is another phosphatic manure 
which may be mentioned. It is not so valuable as superphosphate 
for most vegetables, and being rather slower in its action requires to 
be applied earlier, but it is very good for Grass. Average price, three 
to four shillings per hundredweight. Average quantity to apply, 
4 lb. per square rod. 

Potash Fertilisers. — The most common of these is kainit ; 
average price, three to four shillings per hundredweight ; average 
Ciuantity to use, 2 to 3 lb. per square rod. It is a good fertiliser. 
Sulphate of potash and muriate of potash ; average price of each, 
seven to nine shillings per hundredweight ; average quantity, 1^ lb. 
per square rod ; are both much superior to kainit, the former for 
vegetables, the latter for fruit, but they are not so easy to get. 

There are several other fertilisers besides those mentioned, and 
perhaps the best of them is nitrate of potash (saltpetre). It is, how- 
ever, expensive, often costing fifteen to eighteen shillings per 
hundredweight. A large quantity is not required, li lb. per squaie 
rod sufficing. Like superphosphate, it is valuable for making liquid 
manure. Half an ounce of each to 2 gallons of water will make a 
good fertiliser for most things. 

With the fertilisers here named, any vegetable grower who knows 
how to till his soil, and is not afraid to do it, may grow good crops 
of all vegetables ; indeed, he may do exceedingly well with four 
only, namely superphosphate, kainit, steamed bone flour, and nitrate 
of soda. The prices quoted are the prices I have myself paid for 
hundredweights and half-hundredweights. The quantities advised 
arc those which I have found to be the best in a fairly considerable 
practical experience. 

Speaking broadly, they are best applied two or three months prior 
to cropping. In the case of Potatoes and green vegetables, 1 have 



A VALUABLE MIXTURE OF FEETILISEES. 37 

found applying at cropping quite suitable. In the case of Kidney 
Beans I have found it do great harm. 

The following is the most generally useful chemical mixture that 
I know, and may be taken as a standard : — 

4 superphosphate of lime ] The figures give the pro- 

3 kainit I portions of each to make up 

2 nitrate of soda f the perfect mixture ; 10 lb. 

1 steamed bone flour ) may be used per square rod. 




FIG. 13. -TILL WELL, MANURE INTELLIGENTLY, AND YOUR POTATOES 
WILL BE SOUND AND CLEAN. 



38 PIGTOBIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Chapter 5»— Cbat about Seeds* 

The man who wanders into a seed shop in spring to buy an ounce of 
Parsnip seed rarely realises what a mine of interest is packed away 
in the drawers, bags, and pigeon-holes. The seed shop is a store- 
house of beautiful and wonderful treasures, more brilliant, to the 
imaginative man, than any bazaar. To most people it is a rather 
untidy place with a curious, dry, paper-and-canvas smell ; to him it is 
a garden of beautiful sights and sweet odours. 

There is some seed the scent of which, singularly enough, is more 
agreeable than that of its flowers. T love to bury my face in a bag of 
Nemophila insignis— it is so piquant and delicious. Mignonette 
seed, on the other hand, has little perfume, and that not altogether 
suggestive of the garden. 

Amongst vegetables. Onion seed carries with it more than a 
suspicion of the characteristic smell of this pungent esculent. 
Parsley is unmistakable, and so is Carrot, though I do not mean to 
convey that they smell exactly like the growing crops. 

Seeds are very pleasant things to be associated with. It is true 
that there are occasional disagreeable tasks connected with them. 
For instance, Eadish seed when stored in bulk becomes attacked by a 
disease which shows itself in a fine pinkish powder, and a week of 
sifting to get rid of this pest is not the nicest business in the world. 
But in the main seeds are agreeable to handle, and over and above 
that there is the interest inseparably associated with them as 
potential plants. It is absorbing to reflect on the mass of stem, 
leaves, flowers, and possibly fruits packed away in these tiny spheres. 
You packet up, let us say, Sweet Peas, and straightway your 
imagination tells you of the beautiful gardens these tough little 
balls will help to adorn. It is winter in the seed shop, a little 
inclined to be dreary, perhaps cold ; but the packet in your hand 
takes you away a- wheel into a Somersetshire lane, and between tall 
trees you catch a glimpse of a lovely garden ; and then, as packet 
after packet falls from your busy fingers, you flit from county to 
county, with gardens, gardens everywhere. You are in fruitful Kent, 
in sunny Norfolk, in a Cumberland dale, in a Highland glen, in 
sweet Killarney. And all this magic is worked by the seeds. 

Of the early days of my horticultural training, one of the happiest 
memories is an association, lasting for several pleasant years, with 
seeds, and if I could write eloquently enough of the wondrous 
interest and charm which seeds possess, fewer of them would be 
flung into the soil as so many are now— like stones out of a cart 



HOW TO MAKE SEED POCKETS. 



39 



A seed is a marvellous organism, and should be handled with a 
care almost approaching to reverence. 

It is to be feared that the interest of most cultivators in seeds is 
of a somewhat narrow nature. Will old seeds grow, and so save the 
expense of buying fresh 1 Can seeds be saved at home 1 These are 
the main points with many. Well, they are practical matters, and so 
we will give a little examination to them. There is a great difference 
in the longevity of the different sorts of vegetable seeds. Some will 
retain their vitality for many years, although I might remark, in 
passing, that the mummy Pea is regarded in well-informed circles as 
an impostor. 

Plump seeds of Cucumbers will grow after a lapse of several 
years, as will P>eetroot, Cabbages, and other Greens, Celery, Lettuces, 
Piadishes, and Turnips. On the other hand. Beans, Carrots, Onions, 
Parsnips, Peas, and Tomatoes are, as a rule, shorter-lived, and should 
not be relied on after the second year. 

As a general principle, old seeds should not be trusted to, but 
fresh procured every year. Seeds are very cheap in these days, 



FIG. 14.-H0W TO MAKE SEED POCKETS. 








D 






a. 




3 





Take a sheet of 
paper about 7 
by 5 inches, 
fold it length- 
wise, leav- 
ing a margin 
of ^ inch ; turn 
this margin 
hack to overlap 
the smaller sec- 
tion, and turn it 
a second time. 
Turn the end 
over as at B 
in Fig. 1 from 
A to D. Then 
turn the corner 
as at E A 
in Fig. 2 from 
B to C, and 
slip it under. 
Treat the 
other end the 
same, and the 
pocket will he 
ready: 3 shows 
the front, and 
4 the hack of it. 



40 FIGTOBIAL FEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



and it is much the most satisfactory to get a fresh supply each 
year. ^ ^ ' ^ 

The saving of seed at home might be commendable if cultivators 
would remember the all-important fact that only the best specimens 
should be selected, but, as they hardly ever do, duty demands that 
the practice should be condemned. Stock breeders who relied upon 
the worst specimens of their stocks and herds for breeding would 
soon find themselves beaten. Only the best examples of the various 
crops should be chosen for saving seed from. 

I know of one cultivator who has a strain of home-saved Ailsa 
Craig Onion which he has had for twelve or fifteen years, and which 
is better now than when he first got it, although it was purchased 
from one of the very best sources. He has maintained its excellence 
by saving seed only from the deep bulbs ; the flat ones he has other- 
wise disposed of. 

Few growers appreciate the many points in seed growing, saving 
and harvesting, or the trouble taken by the principal seedsmen in 
keeping their stocks good and pure ; in fact, I do not see how they 
could possibly do so unless they had been through the mill them- 
selves. Seed doctoring is now a thing of the past. The great seeds- 
men vie with each other in honourable rivalry as to who can produce 
the best stocks. To this end, the rows of every variety are carefully 
scrutinised, and plants differing from the type are noted, to be 
marked for future use if new and good, to be pulled out and 
destroyed if inferior. This process is termed " rogueing." Only by 







z^p 















a 


z/ 


— zjf — \ 








FIG. 15.-A 
HANDY SEED 
STORE. 

Get a dozen 
large match- 
boxes, glae the 
frames to- 
gether, and 
glue a piece 
of tape to the 
bottom of each 
box. Paste a 
label on the 
front of each 
(see p. 41), 
and you have 
a handy set of 
seed drawers. 



A SIMPLE BIRD SGAEEE. 



41 



such means can the tendency to deterioration which is exhibited by 
all cultivated plants be counteracted. 

The conditions which most affect the germination of seeds are of 
vital moment to every vegetable grower. There are still some of the 
old school who look upon the phases of the moon as the ruling power 



1 SEET j 


1 1 i 








;/l5TER ! J 



FIG. 16.-MATCHB0X SEED 
STORE. 

This shows the matchbox seed 
store (see p. 40), wieh labels 
affixed. 



in this matter, but most of us are less exalted, and look earthward, 
leaving the moon to her own duties. There are other growers who 
have a calendar, and stick to it religiously. A calendar is useful as 
a guide, but need not be obeyed as a dictator. 

The real arbiter as to the proper date of sowing is, of course, the 
weather. AYith a crisp December and .January, a wet February, and 



6 IN 




F/G / 



FIG. 17.-A SIMPLE BIRD 
SCARER. 

Get a piece of tin 6 inches 
sq[iiare (Fig. 1), cut 
from each corner to- 
wards the middle. Bore 
a hole through each 
corner (1, 2, 3, 4), and 
one in the middle. 
Turn each corner to- 
wards the middle, pass 
a long nail through 
the holes, and drive it 
into a stake (Fig. 2). 
This rattles vigorously 
in the wind. 



a mellow March, sowing may go forward apace, for frost has 
sweetened the soil, rain moistened it, and sun warmed it. There is 
little gained by sowing when the soil is in bad condition, that is, very 
dry, or very wet, or very cold. When the soil is in the pleasant 
intermediate state represented by its clinging lightly, yet not pastily, 
to the tools, it is in the right state for sowing. 

Many ve^-etables may be regarded as possessing a very wide 
range of sowing or planting season. Carrots, for example, may be 



42 PIGTORTAL PEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING 



sown from March to July, and Potatoes may be planted from 
February to June. Those \\lio have warm, south borders can afford 
to commence operations long before those who have not. Making 
due allowance for this, the following table will be useful : — 



Time and Depth of Sowing and Planting. 



Vegetable. 



Month to sow or plant 



Depth, in inchi' 



Artichokes, Chinese... 

Jerusalem 
Globe ... 
Aspai'agus (seeds) ... 

„ (crowns)... 
Beans, Broad 

Dwarf French 

Eunner 
Beetroot 
Borecole or Kale 

Broccoli 

Brussels Sprouts 

Cabbages 

Carrots 

CauliflowrfTS 

Celery 

Cress .. 

Cucumbers 

Endive 

Horseradish (thongs) 

Leeks 

Lettuces 

Mustard 

Onions 

Parsley 

Parsnips 

Peas 

Potatoes, early 

late 

Eadishes 

Rhubarb (crowns) ... 
,, (seeds) 

Salsify 

Savoys 

Scorzonera 
Seakale (crowns) 

,, (seeds) 

Shallots 

Spinach 

Tomatoes 
Turnips 

Vegetable Marrows ... 



March 

March, April 
March 

March, April 

February, March, April 

(sometimes November) 
April, May 
May, June 
April, May 
March 

March, April, May 
February, March 
March, July, August 
March, April, May 
April (January in boxes) 
February, March 
March to August 
January, March 
March, April 
March 
March 

March to J uly 

March to August 

March (January in boxes), 

August 
March, June 
March 

February to May (sometimes 

November) 
Februarj', March, April 
March, April, May 
February to May 
i\Iarch 
March 

March, April 
March' 
March, April 
March 

March 

February, March 

March, August 

February, Mai'ch 

February, ^Marcli, September 

February, March 



Just level with the 
surface 
2 

Half burv the bulb 
1 
i 
1 
1 



U FIGTOBIAL 



PRACTICAL 



VEGETABLE 



GROWING. 



Distance Apart and Time of Maturing. 

[XoTE. — The first figure in the middle column indicates the distance 
from plant to plant in the rows, the second figure the proper 
distance between the rows.] 



Vegetable. 



Di?>tance apart to 
ailoWj in iuclies. 



Time to allow for maturing from 
sowiug or planting. 



ArticliokeS; Chinese .. 
,j Jerusalem 
, , Globe . . . 

Asparagus 

Beans, Broad 

Dwarf French 

Eunners 

Beetroot 

Borecole 

Broccoli 

Brussels Sprouts 
Cabbages, small sorts 
large sorts 

CaiTots 

Cauliflowers. small 
sorts 

CauliflowerSj large 
sorts 

Celerv 

Cress^ 

Cucumbers 

Enclive 

Leeks 

Lettuce 

Mustard 

Onions, outdoor sown 
box sown for 
specimens 

Parsley 

Parsnips 

Peas, dwarf 

medium 

taU 

Potatoes, dwarf sorts 
,, medium 
large 

Radishes 

Rhubarb 

Salsify 

Savoys, small sorts ... 
large „ ... 

Scorzonera 

Seakale 

Sliallots 

Spinach 

Tomatoes 

Tuniips 

Vegetable Marrows . . . 



9 bv 24: 
12 by 33 
4S bv 4S 
15 by 24 

6bv 24 

6 bV 24 
12 bV 72 

9 bV 12 
24 bV 30 
24 bv 24 
24 bV 30 
12 bV 15 
IS bv 24 

9 by 15 

IS by 24 

24 bv 80 
9 by 4S 

24 by 24 
9 bv 12 

12 bv 24 
6 by 12 

6 by 9 

12 by 18 

12 bv 15 

2 bv 24 

3 bv 48 

4 by 72 

9 bv 24 
12 bV 30 
15 by 36 

36 by 36 
9 bv 15 

12 bV 12 

15 by 18 
9 by 15 

18 by 24 
9 bv 12 
6 bV 18 

12 by 36 
9 by 12 
15 square yds. 
per plant 



20 weeks 
36 weeks 
6 to 12 months 
from seed, 3 years : from 3 year 
old cro^vns. 1 year 
13 or 14 weeks 
11 or 12 weeks 
12 weeks 
15 to 20 weeks 
7 to 9 months 

5 to 9 months 

6 to 8 months 
15 to IS weeks 
18 to 20 weeks 

15 to 24 weeks 

15 weeks 

20 to 24 weeks 

5 to 6 months 
2 to 3 weeks 

9 weeks indoors, IS weeks outdoors 
10 to 12 weeks 

6 to S months 

10 weeks 
2 to 3 weeks 

16 to 18 weeks 



24 to 30 
12 

15 to 20 
12 to 15 
12 to 15 
12 to 15 

14 to 15 

16 to 18 
1.^ to 20 

5 to 6 
from seed, 3 
6 
6 
6 
6 

from seed, 3 

15 to 16 
10 to 14 

16 to 18 
8 to 9 



weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

years 

months 

months 

months 

months 

years 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 

weeks 



15 to 18 weeks 



SLUG 8 CIS SOBS. 



45 





CD 

o 



o 



-73 o 



46 PIG TOUT AL FEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GEO WING. 



Quantities of Seed Required. 

In giving a table with the object of affording a guide to sowers 
and planters, I would premise that a difficulty in calculating arises 
from the fact that it is the custom to sow some seeds broadcast and 
others in drills. 

Cabbages, Cauliflowers, and Winter Greens generally, Celery, 
Cress, Endive, Lettuce, Mustard, Radishes, and Turnips are 
generally sowm broadcast, either in boxes or out of doors, and in 
most of these cases I have thought it best to state the approximate 
number of plants that should be produced by a given quantity of 
seed. 



Kind. 



Quantity of seed to yield a given 
nmiiber of plants, or sow a speci- 
fied length of driU. 



Quantity to order 
of each variety for 
a small garden. 



Ai'tichokes, Jerusalem 
Globe ... 

Asparagus 

Beans, Broad 

Dwarf French 
Eunner 

Beet 

Borecole 

Broccoli 

Brussels Sprouts 

Cabbages 

Cauliflowers 

Carrots 

Celery 

Cucumbers 

Endive 

Leeks 

Lettuce 

Onions 

Parsley 

Parsnips 

Peas, early 

„ late 

Potatoes, dwarf 

,, medium ... 
large 

Eadishes 

Salsify and Scorzonera 
Savoys... 

Shallots 

Sjjinach 

1 omatoes 

Turnips 

Vegetable Marrows ... 



90 sets per square rod 
17 suckers per square rod 
1 oz. to 50 feet of drill 
1 quart to 80 feet 
pints to 80 feet 
l"pint to 80 feet 
1 oz. to 30 feet 



yi oz. should produce 1,500 plants 

J 

1 oz. to 80 feet 

1 oz. should produce 5,000 plants 

1 oz. should give 800 plants 

1 oz. should give 2,000 plants 

1 oz. should give 1,000 plants 

1 oz. should give 2,000 plants 

1 oz. to 200 feet 

1 oz. to 80 feet 

1 oz. to 100 feet 

1 quart to 120 feet 

1 quart to 150 feet 
"j quantities by weight vary accord- 
> ing as large, whole, or small 
j cut sets are used. 

1 oz. to 100 feet 

1 oz. to 80 feet 

see Borecole 

363 sets -pei square rod 

1 oz. to 80 feet 

1 oz. should give 2,000 plants 

see Borecole 

Every firm, plump seed should 
germinate 



1 peck. 
4 oz. 
J oz. 
1 pint 
1 pint 
1 pint 
1 oz. 
i oz. 
1 packet 

i oz. 
1 packet 

1 oz. 

4 oz. 
1 packet 

4 oz. 

4 oz. 
1 packet 

i' 

1 pint 
1 pint 
4 bushel 
1 bushel 
1 bushel 
1 oz. 



1 packet 
2 oz. 

1 p>aGket 



r OZ. 
r OZ. 



48 FIGTOEIAL FBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GEOWING, 




HOW TO MAKE A HOTBED. 



49 




50 PICTOEIAL PBACTICAL VEGETABLE OROWIKG. 




52 PIGTOEIAL FEACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWIXG. 



\ 



Chapter 6 —Diseases and insect Pests, 

The lecturer on horticultural subjects soon finds that the joint in 
his armour which is tested the most frequently is that bearing on 
his knowledge of the enemies of crops, and the means of extirpating 
them. He may be able to describe in minutest detail every phase in 
the great art of making a hole with a crowbar to grow a big Carrot, 
but unless he is able to present an anxious inquirer with an 
infallible remedy for getting rid of the Carrot's natural enemy, he 
will be regarded as found wanting. 

Of course, the lecturer discovers this sooner or later, and then 
proceeds to distribute recipes broadcast. He has been doing this for 
some years now, and the same thing was done by horticultural 
editors in years gone by ; but there seem to be just as many wails 
over the depredations of plant pests as ever there were. Either the 
recipes are not what they ought to be, or else the anxious inquirer 
forgets all about them when the time comes to put the information 
to the test. 

There may be some vegetables that are not attacked by injurious 
fungi or insects, but they are very few. I have never known 
Artichokes affected during all the years that I have grown them, 
and the same may be said of Leeks. On the other hand, Potatoes, 
Cabbages and other Greens, Onions, Carrots, Celery, Parsnips, 
Beetroot, Peas, Beans, Cucumbers, Salsify, Tomatoes, and Turnips 
are all troubled. 

In offering a few hints on the subject of combating vegetable 
enemies, it may be convenient if I take the several crops alpha- 
betically. 

Asparagus 

Grubs of a slaty colour, and about J inch long, may often 
be seen infesting Asparagus shoots in summer. They come from 
the eggs of a bluish black beetle named Crioceris Asparagi. and 
often do much damage. Prepare the following mixture, and dip the 
infested shoots in it, afterwards syringing with clear water : — 

^ lb. soft soap. 

i lb. flowers of sulphur. > Mix well in a pail of warm water. 
i lb. soot. J 

Beans;— 

There are two enemies of Beans which surpass in mischief all 
others, namely the black dolphin and the red spider. 



ENEMIES OF BEETROOT. 53 

Black iDolphi7i. — This is the great pest of Broad Beans such as 
Windsors and Longpods. It establishes itself in the growing tips, 
and speedily multiplies itself to the extent of several thousands, or 
even millions. There is no earthly reason why it should do the 
damage it does, for if the tips of the plants are nipped out and 
destroyed directly the first fly is seen the enemy is completely 
baffled. If you do not think one insect worth killing, and wait for a 
few more to gather, anything may happen. A pinch in time saves 
nine. It might be thought (1) that the stopping would injure the 
plant, (2) that the dolphin would strike the plant again. The 
stopping does no harm whatever, rather good, by helping the plant 
to swell up its pods; and I have never seen a stopped plant 
attacked a second time, although I have watched many. In this 
case the cultivator has the remedy literally at his finger ends. 

Bed Sjnder. — This is the terror of the suburban back gardener, 
who sows his Scarlet Runners in 6 inches of gravel and trains them 
up a sun-baked fence. Xo matter what the sun or the fence may 
be like. Scarlet Runners will never have red spider if the soil has 
been properly prepared for them by trenching. So long as the roots 
of the plants are luxuriating in a cool bottom the plants are safe. I 
have never spent a halfpenny on washes for my Scarlet Runners, 
although the plants are not mulched, except with soil, and never 
have either water or liquid manure. Red spider is a result of bad 
culture, and nothing else. 
Beetroot :— 

Birds.— cannot very well class birds as either insects or 
fungi, but they make themselves felt all the same. Irate gardeners 
are apt to declare that the sparrow is beyond classification : he is an 
outcast, a pariah. There are millions of sparrows around my 
garden, and newcomers of this feather view the place with a lively 
intelligence and satisfaction, as something specially prepared for 
their benefit. Old stagers are rather less chirpy. Sometimes a hot 
impulse of anger surges in my breast when I see a batch of seedlings 
cleared off, but no man can be cross with a sparrow long ; the little 
bird is too cheerfully impudent in his dishonesty. Beetroot growers 
raise harrowing moans over the depredations of the birds. Certainly 
thousands of plants are pulled out every spring, and often two, 
and even three, sowings are made. I recommend all sufi'erers to 
invest in a few square yards of old tanned fish netting. A big piece 
can be got for half a crown, and with care it lasts at least three 
seasons. It is because I use fish netting over my Beetroot bed that 
the old hands (or should I say feathers ?) in the select sparrow circles 
of the neighbourhood are more subdued than the young bloods. 
They have learnt something by bitter experience. Green-leaved 
varieties of Beet are not, as a rule, so badly punished by birds as 
dark-leaved sorts. 

Borecole, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbages, and 
Cauliflowers 

The three valuable Winter Greens, with their useful companion 



54 PICTORIAL PR AG TIC AL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



the Savoy, also Cabbages and Cauliflowers, suffer in common 
from several troublesome enemies, on which I will make a few 
remarks. 

Cluh-root~Thh is a fungus, and its name is Plasmodiophora 
Brassicae. It causes rough, gnarled, unwholesome swellings on the 
underground stem and roots, quite different from the white, ball-like 
growths caused by the gall weevil. It is usually very bad in light 
land districts, but far less troublesome where the soil is heavy. 
Obviously one step is to choose the heaviest soil at command, but 
often there is no choice, and the grower must make the best of what 
he has. A dressing of gas lime at the rate of 2 lb. per square yard, given 
in autumn or winter, left to lie on the surface for six or eight weeks, 
and then pointed in, is very good. Another plan is to earth up the 
stems when the crop is half grown, and so encourage fresh, healthy 
roots from the stems. Sowing in wood ashes is good. In sandy soil, 
where it is almost impossible to get a crop, it is often advisable 
to raise the plants under glass, and get them very strong before 
putting them out. 

Gall Weevil.— I have indicated that this and the club-root are 
totally different things. The gall weevil, Ceutorrhynchus sulcicollis, 
is a weevil that pierces the stems of green vegetables, and may also 
attack the roots, while in the case of Turnips it sometimes aflPects 
the whole bulb. Eggs are deposited, and grubs hatch, which feed and 
form galls varying in size from that of a Pea to a marble. The swellings 
are usually smooth, even, and whitish. Dressing with gas lime is 
good as a general remedy, as advised for club-root. In the case of 
all Greens it is wise to look over the plants when transplanting. It 
is an easy matter to slice the galls off into a box or pail, and draw 
the stems and roots through a puddle of soot and lime. 

The Caterpillar. — Late in summer large white butterflies are to 
be seen hovering over the Greens, and a few days afterwards a 
greenish grey caterpillar is seen feeding on the plants. The butterfly 
has laid eggs on the leaves, and the caterpillar has hatched from 
them. The small boy who is so fond of bringing down butterflies 
with his cap has a field for the exercise of his talents amongst the 
Greens if he can only be persuaded to interest himself in the matter. 
A few heavy showers do more than anything else to keep down the 
caterpillar. If they do not come opportunely, hand picking should 
be resorted to, backed up by dusting the plants with soot while they 
are wet with dew, or swilling them with brine. The ichneumon, a 
four-winged fly about yV inch across, is the natural enemy of 
this Cabbage pest. Its maggots make yellow cocoons, which should 
never be destroyed. 

White and other Flies. — Green vegetables are often infested by 
aphides of one colour or another, and sometimes by the small white 
fly Aleyrodes proletella, which is called the Snowy Fly. It is almost 
a hopeless Inisiness to attack aphides in large breadths of Greens, 
and, hap])ily, a soaking rain sooner or later comes to the rescue. 
The Snowy Fly is more difficult to get rid of, and I have found that 



56 PICTORIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



much the best thing is to remove the lower leaves of the infested 
plants, so as to deprive it of its shelter, and destroy them. 
Carrots: — 

The only enemy of Carrots which, in my experience, is a perpetual 
source of serious danger, is the maggot of the Carrot fly, Psila Rosse. 
This pest almost ruins the Carrot crop in some instances. There is 
no reason why it should be allowed to destroy so much as a single 
Carrot, and the method of prevention is purely cultural. The fly 
lays her eggs in the loose soil round the crowns of the young Carrots, 
and if the soil is kept close and firm from the first she cannot effect 
an entrance. I have acted on the principle here involved with 
perfect and complete success for several years in a garden formerly 
very badly infested by the Carrot maggot. If Carrots are not 
thinned until they are half grown there is a considerable disturbance 
of the soil, and if care is not taken to close up the soil round the 
plants left in the rows the fly has matters all her ow^n w^ay. A 
rough thinning of Carrots should be done when they are only 1 inch 
high, and the soil then patted down along both sides of the rows 
with the back of a rake. The second thinning should be done when 
the roots removed are the size of long Radishes, and consequently 
nice for cooking. The soil should be firmed as before. To make 
assurance doubly sure, 1 gallon of gas liquor may be bought at the 
gasworks, diluted wdth 6 gallons of water, and poured between the 
rows. This treatment secures splendid Carrots and no maggots. 

Celery. — The great Celery enemy is the small fly called Tephritis 
onopordinis, which deposits eggs between the skins of the leaf. The 
greyish zigzags which are seen on the leaves of Celery in summer and 
autumn are caused by the burrowings of the maggots which hatch 
from the eggs in question. The Tephritis seems to be an eccentric 
sort of creature, attacking the Celery by fits and starts. Sometimes 
it fires a shot or two early in summer, resumes the attack spasmodic- 
ally a few wrecks later, and then either retires altogether or braces 
its energies for a vigorous onslaught in autumn. In any case, it need 
do no serious damage, for the watchful cultivator may nip its 
operations in the bud l3y pinching the first patches seen between his 
linger and thumb. If it should escape his vigilance, and threaten to 
become seriously troublesome, or should he object to the tedium of 
j)inching, let him spray the plants towards evening wdth "soaparite" 
(1 lb. of best soft soap boiled in 1 quart of water for an hour, then 
^ pint of paraffin stirred in, and the solution well churned with 
a syringe in 8 gallons of water). This is a much more certain 
preventive than dusting with soot, and if the solution is properly 
prejjared the Celery is never tainted. 

Cucumbers.— Cucumber growers have two rather troublesome 
foes to deal with, namely red spider and stem-canker. The first will 
never have a chance to gain a footing if abundance of moisture is 
provided ; therefore, a saturated state of the atmosphere must be 
maintained. If tlie [)lants are allowed to suffer from drought, and 
the atmosphere to become arid, red spider will appear, and then the 



MIXT DISEASE. 



57 




58 PIGTOniAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



leaves will lose substance, and become curled and reddish. Canker 
is rarely, if ever, seen attacking the stems of Cucumbers when rough, 
lumpy "^soil is used, but it is common enough when finely sifted 
soil is employed. Here, therefore, as in so many other instances, 
culture dominates the situation. Should canker show, rub in soot 
and lime at once. 

Onions. — 2Ia(jgot — The maggot of the Onion fly, Anthomyia 
ceparum, is a terrible thorn in the side of kitchen gardeners. It 
does not, as a rule, do much damage in wet seasons, because the eggs 
laid by the fly on the leaves of young Onion plants are washed otf 
and destroyed ; but in dry seasons it often decimates the crop, or 
even ruins it absolutely. Summer sown Onions, and box sown 
Onions raised in January or February, are never so badly attacked 
as spring sown plants, and it may be taken as a fact that the stronger 
the plants the less they are infested. It is a first-rate plan to spray 
soaparite (see Celery) over young Onions once a fortnight from the 
middle of April to June, choosing the evening. Little trouble is 
involved, and if the foliage is well coated with the mixture the fly 
will not lodge. All sorts of applications have been recommended, 
prominent among them being soot and salt, but I have found soap- 
arite to be the best of all. 

J7o't^/c/.— Onions sometimes come to a standstill quite suddenly 
in summer owing to being aliected by a fungus, which causes greyish 
patches on the leaves, and makes them look as if they had been 
scorched. If the plants are seriously attacked they make no more 
growth, and at tiie first sign of the fungus the plants should be 
dusted with freshly slacked lime. I may, however, say that I have 
never known this disease alfect Onions growing in thoroughly 
cultivated, deep soil. 

Parsnips. — Parsnips are sometimes attacked in the foliage 
* similarly to Celery, and the same remedies may be applied. But 
they are more commonly troubled by canker, which causes foul 
blotches on the roots. I have already said that this is due to over- 
manuring. The remedy is a dressing of lime at the rate of 2 lb. per 
square yard. 

Peas. — In wet, growing weather, Peas are tolerably free from 
insects and fungi, but in dry seasons they are attacked by several. 
They are always, of course, liable to attack by other enemies. 

Birdi. — Netting or some sort of guard is very useful for keeping 
birds off the seeds and young plants. If netting is employed it 
should be removed before the young plants become entangled in it, 
and twiggy shouts from the upper part of the Pea sticks placed along 
the rows. These do much to batfie the birds. 

Mice. — Mice will do no harm if the seeds are moistened with 
quassia water before being sown, or with paraffin, or with red lead 
after being damped with linseed oil. 

MildeiVs — This fungus is very bad, as a rule, in dry summers, and 
it may appear in wet seasons if tiie plants are growing in heavy, 
stagnant ground. The great thing is to keep the plants in healthy 



PROTEGTOBS FOR PEAS. 



59 





60 PICTOBIAL PBACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWIXG. 

growth from first to last, and to secure this end the soil should be 
well drained and deeidy tilled. Mulchings wirh soil and manure, 
and soakirjgs of liquid manure in dry weather, are helpful in light 
soil As an application to the plants, sulphide of putassiurn (liver of 
sulphur) at the rate of ^ oz. per gallon of water, maybe tried. 

Thrips. — This lively little insect causes great damage to late Peas 
in hot, dry seas^jus, It attacks the leaves and the pods, and the 
latter curl up iitst^ad ^'A rilling. I do not believe in any mere wash 
for this enemy, any more than I do for mildew. Cultural steps are 
the best, such as deep tillage, feeding and mulching, combined with 
the choice of a sort that is kn^jwu to be a vigorous grower and not 
simply a big podder. Large p'jds are n-jt cu' much account if they 
do not fill. The plants must be kept grc'wing. If they come to a 
standstill the thrips can be kept in check only at an expense that the 
value of the crop fails to justify. 

Weevil- — Pea growers often comphkn of small grubs in their pods, 
especially in a dry season. The pods are pierced by a weevil when 
quite young, and the grubs that hatch from the eggs laid attack the 
Peas. The be.-t way to ensure comparative nnmunity is to produce 
vigorous, free-grov-ing plants by good culture, supplemented by 
occasional dustings witn soot and lime, 

Potatoes. — It would lift a ■ on the minds of vegetable 

growers if some good genius con.... _.ve us the fine qualities of the 
best sorts in conjunction with such vig^our of constitution as sets 
disease at defiance. It is a consummation which we shall continue 
to wish for devoutly, but shall probably never see. A few dry 
seasons may encourage the grower to believe that his arch-enemy. 



EEFEREXCES TO POTATO DISEASE EICxEEE OX 
PAGE 61. 

A, infested kaf : cu le .iets :.r::\.j--:cd by the paiasiuc fungus, Phytophthora 

infestans, causing the di-:--i,se in tiie early stages, the earliest 
indications of at: .ck tcini- rVv ^ - - ^ nee cf small bro^n:sh blct'jhes 
on the leaves. lh>;e graha in -ize. anl are iclL'^-d 

"by a curling of t:.e leaves. In La.v:- ai a severe attack the leaves and 
stems become blackenei and decays 1 ia the course of a few days, 
and emit a disagreeable smell ; h. biov, n spots on the under side of the 
leaves. These on the circumference bear, as seen by a pocket lens, 
numbers of delicate white threads — the fuEgal outsrowths ; cle--.n 
leaflet. 

B, the fungus wliich causes the disease in fruit : conidiophores ; 

conidia ; /, stomata of Potato leaf. 

C, a fallen conidium showing contents breaking up into zoospores. 

D, the discharge of zoospores : conidium with four zoospores not yet dis- 

charged ; A, zoospores with cilia, or hahs, by which they move more 
readily in a drop of water, and Anally come to rest ; i, zoospore be- 
come passive and geiminated; y, germinating or geiTU tube, which 
enters the Potato le if. stem, or tuber, and gives rise to the disease, 

E, a conidium not broken up into zoospores, but pushing a geim tube : 

ky conidium ; germ tube. 



TEE POTATO DISEASE, 



61 




62 PIOTOniAL FRAG TIG AL VEGETABLE GnOWING. 



Phytoplithora infestans, has gone for ever, but a wet one dispels the 
sweet dream. 

Potatoes are subject to several enemies, and the crop is of such 
importance that a little attention may well be devoted to each. 

Blight or Murrain. — This, Phytophthora, once called Peronospora, 
infestans, which first made itself formidable in the closing years of the 
first half of the nineteenth century, is essentially a child of moisture. 
It is rarely that one sees more than a casual trace or two of it in dry, 
warm summers, though it is not often completely absent from a large 
collection of varieties. I usually grow from fifty to seventy sorts, and 
I cannot remember the season w^hen a plant here and there did not 
show signs of a slight infestation. This is a small matter, and really 
it serves a good purpose, for it reminds the grower that his enemy 
lives on, and that he must not be lulled into a false security. In wet 
seasons, or during cold, humid spells, the disease is on quite a 
different footing, and often spoils the crop. The brown patches 
under the leaf, the musty smell, the collapsing foliage, all tell their 
story. Potato growers now have a valuable remedy at their 
command, and if only they will look a little ahead, have their 
materials ready, and keep an intelligent watch on the weather, they 
need suffer little loss. I have proved the efficacy of Bordeaux 
Mixture, and now, with a small addition of my own, am always 
ready to take the field with confidence. Bordeaux Mixture as made 
by me consists of : — 

1 lb. sulphate of copper (bluestone) \ in 10 gallons of water. (1 lb. of 
1 lb. freshly slacked Kme > cheap treacle is sometimes sub- 

J lb. soft soap j stituted for the soft soap. ) 

The bluestone. which may cost about 4d. per lb., is first dissolved in a 
little hot water in a wooden bucket, then the lime is stirred up into 
another vessel of water ; finally the two are poured together, and the 
soft soap, churned up in a little hot water, is poured in. The stuff 
may be put on with a knapsack sprayer, or Abol syringe, and in 
order to get it well on to the under surface of the leaves, there should 
be two operators, one to hold back a line of tops with a Bean pole, 
the other to do the spraying. The grower should be on the watch 
in July and onwards. If continued heavy rains wash the deposit 
off the leaves, he must go to work again and repeat the dressing. 

The following cultural points are worth observing : (1) Select 
well-drained soil if possible. (2) Ensure a strong, healthy plant by 
using good seed and practising sound culture. (3) Plant in wide 
ranks so as to allow of plenty of soil for earthing. (4) In moulding 
up, do it thoroughly and finish the ridges sharply, dusting lime on them 
if the weather turn muggy in July and August. (6) Whatever show 
sorts may be grown, take care to include one or two tough disease 
resisters, such as Magnum Bonum and ]Main Crop. 

Curl in the Leaf. — In the early part of 1900 Potato growers in 
most parts of Great Britain observed that their plants developed 
slowly, and that the foliage, which was very scanty, curled, without 
losing its colour. Large numbers of plants never made progress, but 



G4 PICT OBI AL PRAGTIGAL VE GET ABIE GEOWIXG. 



remained stunted. They yielded very poor crops, and it was notice- 
able that the seed tubers remained almost unchanged throughout the 
season. The same state of affairs was observable in 1901. Such a 
generally reliable variety as Beauty of Hebron was one of the worst 
affected. Premature ripening of the seed, owing to the hot. dry 
summers of 1899 and 1900 was suggested as the cause, not without 
reason, probably. I think, however, that the cold, late springs were 
contributory, and I am strengthened in this opinion by the fact that 
in one of my plots that was badly affected a piece of Up-to-Date 
planted very late (the end of May) was perfectly healthy. If growers 
have good seed they need be in no hurry to plant in exposed places. 




FIG. 38. -TWITCH IN POTATOES. 

Here is a curious instance of what t^itcli or couch. Triticum repens, 
will do if not cleared out of Potato ground before planting. It 
has gone right through the Potato. 



Scah.—l do not know if Potato scab has been exhaustively 
studied by micro-fungologists. When it does engage their attention, 
I shall not be surprised to hear that there are several distinct forms. 
One form of scab is directly due to excess of rank manure. Another 
(or it may be the same) is just as certainly due to contact with 
coarse, sharp particles, such as coal ashes or rough stones. AVhere 
scab is persistently troublesome in the absence of these conditions a 
little sulphur should be dusted in the drills, or the seed should be 
soaked in a solution of corrosive sublimate, 1 oz. to 15 gallons of 
water. Care should be exercised, as the sublimate is a dangerous 
poison. 



ENEMIES OF TOMATOES. 65 

Salsify. — After growing Salsify without trouble for several years, 
I was harassed by a fungoid disease in 1901. It formed small 
whitish pustules on the leaves, which were almost covered. AVishing 
to observe its progress and results, I made no attack on it. The 
plants appeared to grow out of the disease late in the summer, but 
the roots never developed to their proper proportions. At the first 
trace of it in future, I shall try the Bordeaux Mixture. 

Tomatoes.— The Tomato as an outdoor crop is, like its relative 
the Potato, a creature of the weather. Given a dry, warm season, 
the plant sets and swells abundance of fruit, if the cultural treatment 
is correct. In wet, chilly years it often falls a prey to Phytophthora. 
It is a great thing to get the plants along early and strong. If the 
blight show itself, spray with Bordeaux Mixture. 

Cladosporium de7itriticu7n.— This disease manifests itself by 
yellow spots on the leaves, usually accompanied by brown patches on 
the under side. It is more common on indoor than on outdoor plants, 
and is very liable to occur when the atmosphere under glass is 
muggy. Free ventilation in damp weather, with a little warmth in 
the pipes if chilly, and spraying with Bordeaux Mixture at the first 
sign of an attack, represent the best preventive measures. 

Sleepy disease. — Apparently healthy Tomato plants sometimes 
wilt suddenly, erstwhile fresh, substantial leaves hanging limp and 
lifeless. Rich animal manures should be avoided, ancl burnt refuse 
added to the soil. Care should be exercised in watering. The soil 
should be kept just moist, neither sodden nor dust dry. It^ is 
important to get seed from a healthy source. A^eltha may be applied 
if an attack threatens to develop. 

White fly. — A small, rapidly flitting white fly' nam eel Aleyrodes 
vaporariorum sometimes infests Tomatoes under glass. It is a trouble- 
some pest if allowed to spread, and it is well worth while to hunt 
down and kill the first insects seen. Should it threaten to become 
master of the situation sulphur-wash the hot-water pipes and turn on 
the heat. 

Turnips. — The remarks under the heading of Borecole, Broccoli, 
and Brussels Sprouts save me the necessity of referring to club-root 



EEFEEEXCES TO TURXIP GALL FIGURE, PAGE 67. 

A, Turnip, natural size : a, top, quite clean and healthy; b, the hulb," 

white, clear in the skin, and sound in the flesh ; c, the tap or main 
root, with healthy rootlets; d, abnormal growths called "galls"; 
e, a depressed hlotch, discolomred at the centre and round the 
margin, caused by the decay of the flesh of the Turnip. 

B, the top of an excrescence cut off and inverted, natural size : /, the 

skin, or cuticular and epidermal cells; (/, the flesh; /?, a cavity or 
hollow ; i, a grub — the excrescence or gall maker. 

C, an excrescence or gall from which the top was cut off, enlarged 3 

diameters : j\ the skin ; k, the flesh ; the cavity ; a grub. 

D, the Turnip gall weevil: natural size ; o, enlarged 5 diameters. 

E, the Turnip gall weevil grub, enlarged 5 times. 
E 



(56 PICTORIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 



and gall weevil. I may, however, say a word about the flea beetle, 
Haltica nemorum. This tiny bronze black pest is a complete bar to 
Turnip cultivation in some districts. Moistening the seed in 
turpentine before sowing is recommended, but it is not a sure 
remedy. Vigorous dusting with soot and wood ashes in the early 
morning, when the enemy is sluggish, is the best cultural step. 




FIG. 39. -ACONITE. FIG. 40.-HORSERADISH. 

Deaths have occurred through mistaking Aconite roots for Horseradish. 
The above figures show the difference between them. 



GALL WEEVIL ON TURNIPS- 



67 




FIG. 41.-TURNIP ATTACKED BY GALL WEEVIL. 

For references see page 65. For other remarks see page 54. 



68 PICTORIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Chapter 7,— Clfting ana Storing Roots. 

Fkom time immemorial a fend has raged between gardeners and 
cooks on the score of vegetables. When placed on the table, an irate 
master has had to complain bitterly of inferior quality (the com- 
parison generally being made with vegetables of the same kind 




FIG. 42. -THE WRONG WAY OF LIFTING ROOTS. 

1, a Carrot gripped by the leaves without the root being previously 
loosened; 2, the top breaks off in consequence, or (3) the root 
breaks. 



recently tasted at a neighbour's house), and straightway the head 
of the garden and the chief of the kitchen have proceeded to lay the 
blame upon each other. 

In all probability this time-honoured quarrel will rage for many 
years to come, and it is safe to say that the roots will be the bone of 
contention in many cases, l^eetroot. Carrots, and Parsnips are all 



HOW TO LIFT BOOTS. 



69 



very easily spoiled by bad culture, and just as easily by bad cooking. 
Beetroot is particularly susceptible. If grown in rich soil, it has a 
coarse, earthy taste that no culinary skill can refine ; and if carelessly 
dealt with at lifting time it is injured and loses sap, with the inevit- 
able result of bad colour and poor flavour. On the other hand, the 
best flavoured and most carefully harvested of Beetroot will be 
ruined if it is punctured and prodded while in the pot. 

Between gardeners and cooks, masters sometimes grow bewildered, 
but occasionally they are equal to the occasion. That one was who, 
being dissatisfied with the Beetroot served at his own table, stepped 




FIG. 43.-THE RIGHT WAY OF LIFTING ROOTS. 

B, a Carrot carefully loossned by a fork. 
0, the tops marked for cutting (1), 
D, ready for storing. 



quietly into his gardener's cottage one day after he had seen a garden 
boy carry some roots thither, and shared his dependent's modest 
meal. The Beetroot on the cottage board was perfect in colour and 
flavour, and an erring cook w^as for once brought to justice. 

There should be no hurry in lifting vegetable roots when the 
season begins to wane. Beetroot is often lifted for August (some- 
times even for July) shows, but if there is no summer prize in view, 



70 PICTOBIAL PEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWIXG. 



the end of September is quite early enough. By that time the foliage 
is generally ripe, and ready to part from the root without violent 
twisting. 

It is often advised to twist the leaves of Beetroot off, instead of to 
cut them, on the ground that there can then be no loss of sap, and 
consequently of colour. I question the wisdom of this advice. I 
have know^n Beetroot from w^hich the tops have been twisted lose 
colour very badl}^ with no mistake in cooking to account for it. On 
the other hand, I have known Beetroot from which the leaves have 
been cut to retain its colour perfectly. 

These facts cause me to look elsewhere than in the mere difference 
between twistino' and cutting for an explanation of the trouble. If 
the Beetroot is lifted so early that the leaves can only be removed by 
violent twisting, injury is likely to accrue. It wull also follow, if, in 
using the knife, the crown of the root is touched. On the other 
hand, there wdll be no trouble if the leaves come off' quite readily on 
being twisted, nor will there be if cutting is practised, so long as 
care is exercised to leave 1 inch of the stumps of the leaves, thus 
avoiding any risk of injuring the crown. 

Carrots may be lifted towards the end of September or early in 
October, and the leaves cut in to short stumps. 

Parsnips should not be lifted in late summer or early autumn 
unless there is urgent need. Early lifting is fatal to good flavour. 
There is no comparison between the flavour of roots of the same 
variety in October and in February. Leave them in the ground all 
the winter, lifting only as wanted, with a few extra now and then to 
anticipate a frost. 

Salsify is best treated like Beetroot, and Scorzonera like Parsnips. 

In using a fork to lift roots, be careful to avoid inserting it quite 
close to them, otherwise the roots will be pierced before the tool has 
penetrated very far. It should be inserted at least 6 inches away, 
nearly perpendicularly, and the roots gently prized or heaved out of 
their position, so that they can be drawn cut safely with the hands. 
If it is worth while to spend seven or eight months in growing good 
roots, it is worth while to take care of them when they are produced. 

There is no better way of storing roots than to build them up 
into a wall with layers of sand between, placing them head to tail 
alternately, in order to get them into as small a compass as possible, 
and finishing with a roof of Bracken. But sand and Fern are not 
always at hand, nor procurable without expense. In these circum- 
stances, it is well to know that Beetroot, Carrots, and Salsify will 
keep perfectly fresh, good, and sweet if " clamped'' just like Potatoes. 
First make a shallow pit, and line it with straw, then lay in the roots, 
cover them with straw, and roof in wuth soil a couple of inches thick. 
I always practise this plan, and find it the simplest and best. 

Beetroot and Carrots lose their freshness rapidly if cleansed of 
soil when lifted and left about exposed to air, wdiether in the dark 
or in the light. Even a box of sand is not sufficient. They want to 
be thoroughly covered. 



EO]V TO STOEE BOOTS. 



71 




72 PICTORIAL FRAGTIOAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Cbapur 8 — flrttcl)okes» 

In the Jerusalem and Globe Artichokes we have two vegetables that 
are comparatively little grown in small gardens. The latter is 
certainly not worth the amount of space it demands to the cottager 
or small-garden amateur. It is more or less of a luxury, and there is 
perhaps a certain amount of justification for the remark that eating 
Globe Artichokes is with most people merely an excuse for eating 
butter. The Jerusalem Artichoke is more serviceable, but it also 
requires space. 

The Chinese Artichoke, Stachys tuberifera, came into prominence 
a few years ago. The tubers average 2 to 3 inches in length, and are 
spirally corrugated. They are agreeable in flavour, and, as the plant 
crops well, and does not make extravagant demands on space, there 
is no reason why it should not be grown if fancy dictates. At the 
same time, it would be idle to aver that this vegetable is of any real 
garden importance. The tubers may be planted 9 inches apart, in 
rows 2 feet asunder, in spring, and lifted in autumn. 

Tastes differ on the score of the Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus 
tuberosus). Some like it, others express no partiality. It is a poor 
vegetable when badly cooked, but by no means to be despised when 
well served, and it makes a delicious soup. It contains no starch, 
and will therefore never boil floury. 

The Jerusalem Artichoke resembles the Potato in liking a very 
freely worked soil. Much dung is unnecessary, in fact disadvan- 
tageous, inasmuch as it leads to coarseness, both in appearance and 
flavour. The best tubers for planting are those about 2 oz. in 
weight, and even in shape. They may be planted 6 inches deep in 
March or April. I And the plant serviceable for a screen, with its 
tall, Sunflower-like growth, and, in utilising it as such, plant the 
tubers 1 foot apart in a single row, but if weight of crop was the only 
consideration I should be disposed to give them more room. In bed 
planting they should have 2 by 2^ feet. 

The most common mistake with this vegetable is to lift the tubers 
early in autumn. The growth should be allowed to die away, or, if 
heavy winds in autumn break the plants over, as they often will in 
exposed places, cut the stems through a few inches above the soil, 
clear away the top hamper, and leave the stools till midwinter or 
later, lifting a few tubers as wanted for use. A peck to each hole is a 
satisfactory crop, although ancient practitioners sometimes tell of 
having lifted a bushel in the good old days ! 

The seedsman can generally supply planting tubers of Jerusalem 
Artichokes, or failing him the local greengrocer. It is well, however, 
to order early, for it is an odd fact that the demand for this little- 
grown vegetable often exceeds the supply. The old red is a useful 
sort, and the newer white very good in flavour. 



CHINESE AETIG BOXES. 



73 



The Globe Artichoke, Cynara Scolymus, does not provide us with 
underground tubers, but with scaly green or purple flower heads, the 
size of an Orange, or bigger. These balls are cooked and served with 
melted butter, and the green or purplish scales are tender and agree- 
able. It was in Berlin that I first tasted Globe Artichokes, and a 
clever chef hsid served them up very tastily, but I am not going to say 
that even in the hands of the best of cooks they are anything to go 

into raptures over. 

The Globe Artichoke gives us, 
however, another dish. It is not 
uncommon to cut the plants over 
in summer, and when the young 
growths which follow have pushed 
a couple of feet or so, to blanch 




Fia. 45.-THE CHINESE ARTICHOKE. 

A, top and roots. 

B, how to pkmt. 



These are 



them with straw and soil, 
called Chards. 

A stock of Globe Artichokes may be 
secured in the first place by sowing seeds 
in spring, and putting out the resulting 
plants about 1 yard apart ; but when a 
plantation has been made, the stock can be perpetuated by suckers . 

The plants like a deep, richly manured soil, and abundance of 
liquid manure. If their w^ants are met in this direction, and they are 
allowed to stand 4 feet apart all ways, they will make fine clumps. 

When they have finished for the year they may be mulched with 
fine coal ashes or burnt refuse, and litter. 

Seedsmen usually offer two or three varieties of Globe Artichokes, 
from which the Large Green or Giant Purple may be chosen. 



74 PICTORIAL PRAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Cbapter ^♦-Jlsparaaus* 

AsPAEAGUS, often corrupted in country districts tj sparrow (or 
sparrer !) grass, is the old plant Asparagus officinalis, which has been 
known for thousands of years, grows wild in some parts of Britain, 
and was forced for market in this country upwards of two centuries 
ago. 

It is often looked upon as a rich man's vegetable, and where the 
natural conditions are against it possibly the production of a crop is 
not economical. Given fairly favourable circumstances, however, it 
yields w^ell with very little trouble, and I know of excellent beds on 
allotments. 

Asparagus undoubtedly likes a well- drained, rather light and 
porous soil. It dislikes clay, and abhors stagnant moisture. It 
appreciates a saline^ atmosphere. On deep, sandy loams near the 
sea it thrives exceedingly well. It may be, and is, well grown inland, 
but it is not so easy to get a heavy crop on stiff as on light soils. On 
tenacious, ill-drained land it is almost essential to raise the beds 
above the surface. 

Asparagus may be grown from seed with ease, and the only draw- 
back to the plan is that the plants are not strong enough to cut from 
under three years, and it is best to allow four. The seed may be 
sown in April, in a drill 1 inch deep, and the plants thinned. In 
the following spring they may be transplanted to the beds. 

It is a good plan to allow two rows to a bed, planting 1 foot from 
the edge at each side, and allowing 2 feet in the centre. This means 
a bed 4 feet wide. The stools may be 18 inches apart in the rows. 
It is a common and good plan to form a small ridge of soil where the 
rows are to be, set the stools on it, spread the fibrous roots well out 
on each side, and cover the crowns 4 inches deep. 

Those who want to cut Asparagus a year after planting must 
procure three or four year old crowns. These are clumps of growing 
points and fibrous roots, 6 inches or more across. If planted in 
showery weather in spring, they will soon be established. They may 
be procured from nurserymen or seedsmen. These crowns are rather 
expensive, but those who want to have a bed in bearing very quickly 
do not always let the cost stand in the way. 

The life of an Asparagus bed is a very uncertain quantity. I 
have known beds very elaborately made, with faggots or rubble for 
drainage, soil well cultivated, and alleys lined out with geometrical 
accuracy, yet failure has followed. And I have known the plants 
"thrown in," as gardeners say, and the bed succeed. ^ In these cir- 
cumstances I will draw attention to a few points which seem to me 
to have a rather important bearing on the question. 

In the first place, rubble and faggots can only be required in wet, 
sticky soil ; they would be out of place, and harmful, in a soil that 
was naturally drained. 



AN ASPARAGUS KNIFE, 75 

A young bed should be cut from with restraint. A few of the earliest 
sboots should be allowed to run up untouched, to encourage root 
action. Hard cutting, it must be remembered, has a tendency to 
cripple the rootstocks. No cutting should be practised after the 
middle of June. 

There should be no eagerness to clear oflf the top growth ^ in 
autumn. To tear it out before it is thoroughly ripe means injuring 
the latent buds in the soil. If an objection is raised that leaving the 
shoots to mature means self seeding and a bed full of young growths, 
I reply by pointing to the old beds of half a century or more's 
standing, which often flourish under just such conditions. 

It is a regular practice to mulch Asparagus beds in autumn. 
Often good follows, but sometimes, I think, harm. Rank manure 
fresh out of the yard is too wet. If manure is used it should be dry 
and well decayed, so that it can be crumbled up and mixed with 
burnt refuse, thus forming an ideal top-dressing. Near the sea 
quantities of seaweed are often heaped on to the beds. Such beds 
are, however, usually well drained ; moreover, the salt in the weed is 
beneficial. 

The spring dressing of salt, which it is orthodox to supply, some- 




FIG. 46.-AN ASPARAGUS KNIFE. 



times does good and sometimes harm. It does good in light, well- 
drained soil; it does harm, often if not always, in stifi*, wet land. 
Generally speaking, where salt is beneficial, one-fourth the quantity 
of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia is more so. 

It should be remembered that an Asparagus bed in full bearing 
is putting a considerable strain on the resources of the soil, therefore 
weeds should not be tolerated. Moreover, a little liquid manure 
may be applied occasionally, either from natural sources or made 
by dissolving ^ oz. each of superphosphate and nitrate of soda in 1 
gallon of water. A fortnightly soaking with this works wonders. 

The forcing of Asparagus is not a troublesome business, but it is 
hardly one for the person who has to cut his cloth up carefully, as 
the forced roots have to be thrown away after the crop is done. Eoots 
to be forced may be lifted in November, packed close together on a 
6-inch coating of light, rich soil over a hotbed, covered with soil, and 
watered. 

Most seedsmen offer about four varieties of Asparagus, namely, 
Connover's Colossal, Early Battersea, Early Purple Argenteuil, and 
Early White Argenteuil. The first is one of the best. The Asparagus 
usually thought best in British gardens is that about as thick as 
one's finger, with a green tip a couple of inches long or so, cut a 
matter of 3 inches below the surface, the lower part being white 
and hard. 



76 PIGTOniAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Chapter 10 — B^ans, 

By one of those singular cliances wliicli set us speculating at times, 
there has grown up a species of social distinction between the Broad 
Bean (Faba vulgaris or Vicia Faba) and the Kidney Bean in its two 
popular forms, the Dwarf French (Phaseolus vulgaris) and the Scarlet 
Eunner (Phaseolus multiflorus). The Broad Bean, so please you, 
is of the masses, the Kidney Bean of the classes. The first is a 
plebeian, the second an aristocrat. Eefined people profess rather a 
horror of the Broad Bean, as a vulgar and commonplace vegetable, 
too gross for a delicate palate. 

All this is rather stupid. Of course, it sprang from the scornful 
line of Wordsworth : — 

And clowns eat Beans and bacon till they burst. 

Had the poet never written that, the thousands of people who, 
fondly imagining themselves to be marked by a sturdy independence 
of character, nevertheless dare not for their lives acknowledge a liking 
for the Beans and bacon combination beloved of Hodge, w^ould be 
devouring the tasty dish with a hearty gusto. • 

The Broad Windsor is the typical Broad Bean. The Longpod is 
an interloper. Of course, the latter is now quite eclipsing the old 
form in public favour. The Windsor has two or at most three Beans 
in a pod, the Longpod has six or eight at least. In all probability 
the Longpod will continue to grow in popularity at the expense of 
its rival, but it does not beat it in flavour, if it does in productiveness. 

The remarks that have been made in previous papers on soil pre- 
paration, manuring, seed, sowing, and insect extermination render it 
unnecessary to say much about Bean culture. The man who knows 
how to till his land, manure it, and keep dowm enemies has learnt 
how to grow Beans. With a little information about varieties he is 
quite safe. 

When autumn sowing was more practised than it is now the Early 
Maz:igan was a popular Broad Bean, and it may still be used for 
November sowing. It is very hardj^, and the sower often has the 
satisfaction of surveying a sturdy row^ of plants 3 or 4 inches high in 
March. 

Beck's Dwarf Green Gem is another old Bean. It is dwarf, 
bushy, and small podded. Although it does not give the weight of 
crop yielded by a good Longpod, its compactness of growth and 
delicacy of flavour render it desirable for a sowing early in the year, 
say in February, if soil and weather be favourable. 

Both Longpods and Windsors might be divided into two sections 
if necessary — white seeded and green seeded. The first section givers 



A SUPFOBT FOE RUNNERS. 



77 



as a rule, the larger pods, tlie second the better flavour. After 
growing every variety of any repute that I could get, I have come to 
the conclusion that there is not a great deal to choose between the 
selected Longpods of our leading seedsmen. Bunj^ard's Exhibition, 
Carters' Leviathan, Buttons' Green Giant, and Yeitchs' Exhibition 
are all excellent, and any one of them may be chosen with confidence. 
Of what may be termed standard types, the Seville is one of the best. 

It is much the same with the Windsors. Selected strains are 
offered by all of the principal seedsmen. Taylor's and the Harlington 
may be takea as good types. 

I have already, in a table, indicated the depth and distance of 
sowing, and it is unnecessary to do more than emphasise the fact 
that shallow and thick sowing are both bad. Three to 4 inches is 
the right depth to cover, and 6 inches would not be too much in very 
light soils. As respects distance, we are all of us inclined to be 



no. 47.-A SUBSTITUTE FOR RUNNER BEAN POLES. 



nervous about the quality of our seed when sowing time comes, and 
tempted to sow thickly in consequence. If the seeds be dropped 
in 3 inches apart, and every other plant thinned out if all grow, 
things will work out right. 

Dwarf French Beans are a much ill-treated crop. There is often 
much fuss to get them sown when the end of April comes, but if the 
crop gets sandwiched in as to season between Peas and Scarlet 
Runners half of it is never eaten. 

In large gardens the principal value of the French Bean lies in its 
value for pot ^ culture. In my salad days Osborn's Forcing and 
Fulraer's Forcings, wdth, in a minor degree, Syon House and Sir 
Joseph Paxton, were the favourite varieties for this purpose. I am 
afraid that these old stagers have passed out of favour. To be sure 
they are grown still, Osborn's particularly, but Ne Plus Ultra and 
the Sutton Forcing have given them the go-by. Both are very nice 
pot Beans. 

With a few 8-, 9-, or 10-inch pots, or boxes 4 to 6 inches deep, an 
early supply of French Beans may be had. If a heated pit is at 




78 PIOTOEIAL PEAGTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 

command, seed may be sown in November, but if the plants have to 
come along in a vinery or Peach-house started in the new year 
January is early enough to sow. The seeds may be inserted 3 to 4 
inches apart, and the plants supported by twiggy sticks. It is use- 
less to attempt forcing French Beans in a dry, hot place, for they 
would be ruined by red spider. 

Canadian Wonder is not yet surpassed as a general outdoor sort. 
It has large, pale leafage, and is a coarse grower, but crops heavily, 
and gives large pods. Negro Longpodded is a black-seeded sort, 
rather dwarfer than Canadian Wonder, and very good in every way. 

The climbing French, a section of which the first representatives 
were Yeitchs' Climbing and Buttons' Tender and True, have acquired 





FIG. 48.-ANOTHER SUPPORT FOR RUNNERS. 

1, 1, uprights ; 2, 2, struts; 3, 3, strong cord ; 4, 4, pegs ; 6, 5, strings 
for the Beans. 



some popularity. They do not so quickly cease growth and produc- 
tiveness as the dwarfs, and are undeniably useful. On the other hand, 
their flavour is not equal to that of Scarlet EunnerSj which are in 
season at the same time. They require sticks. 

The Scarlet Runner is without a doubt the most valuable of all 
Beans. It is a tender plant, and is therefore not suitable for early 
sowing, but it can be had in July, and under good treatment will last 
and yield until frost kills it in October or November. 

Perhaps the earliest pods are got by lifting the old roots in 
autumn, storing them through the winter like Dahlias, and planting 
out in late spring. But I have yet to learn the advantages of the 
plan. If a few pods are wanted early for a special purpose, well and 
good, but otherwise there is no gain to a private grower in having 
Scarlet Runners ready before August. Up to that time he has, or 
should have, abundance of Peas. 

It always seems to me that the period at which the Scarlet 



STORING BOOTS OF EUNNEBS. 



79 



Runner proves its value the most is in late August, in September, 
and in October. In the South and East Peas are difficult to get at 
that season, whereas with proper treatment Runners will grow, 
bloom, and pod incessantly. 

Except in warm localities or sheltered positions, the end of May 
is early enough to .^ow. I like to drop the seeds 
in 9 inches apart at least, and cover 4 inches 
deep. It is a very good practice to sow a 
double row, or rather to sow two rows about 
i yard apart, incline the poles for each 
diagonally so as to cross each other about 1 
yard above the ground, and then lash them. Or 
the plants may be trained on upright poles in 
a single row, on strings, on fences, on arbours, 
and in a variety of other ways. If poles are 
used, they should be inserted directly the 
Runner shows ; moreover, they should be well 
secured, for an 8-feet row of runners in full 
growth puts no light strain on its supports when 
swaying under the influence of a summer 
gale. 

The plan adopted in some districts of keeping 
Scarlet Runners dwarf by pinching out: or 
chopping off the ends of the shoots has some- 
thing to recommend it. A hedge 2 or 3 feet 
through and the same I ligh is produced. Poles 
are not necessary. It would, however, be futile 
to contend that crops and individual pods 
equal to those on unstopped plants are pro- 
duced. 

The Old Scarlet is the cheapest Runner, and 
will do very well for all ordinary purposes, but 
if large pods are wanted a selected strain must 
be grown, such as Suttons' Best of All, Neal's 
Ne Plus Ultra, Carters' Jubilee, or Hill's Prize. 
The White Dutch or Caseknife has a very 
large, broad pod, but white Runners are not 
popular. 

Butter Beans are esteemed by some, and 
there are dwarf and tall forms (Mont d'Or). 
They are usually served whole, not sliced like 
French and Runners. 

Haricots may be left out of account as a garden vegetable. 




FIG. 49. -STORING 
ROOTS OF RUN- 
NERS. 

This shows a bundle 
of Scarlet Runner 
roots lifted and 
suspended in a 
fairly dry, frost- 
proof, but cool 
place for the 
winter. 



80 PICTORIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Cbapfer il— Beetroot 

In the Garden Beet, Beta vulgauis, we have a highly developed 
vegetable, the making of which has given our seedsmen no small 
amount of trouble. It and the Mangold AYarzel of the fields, Beta 
vulgaris macrorhiza, are closely related ; in fact, the latter may be 
described as simply a large-rooted form, and herein lies the danger. 

Get a poor strain of Beetroot seed from your seedsman, sow it a 
little too early, have the soil too rank, and behold ! in your garden 
plot is a patch of roots that every more fortunate gardener in the 
neighbourhood sniggers at— roots which certainly ought to be out 
among the ]\Iangolds in the fields. 

In their laudable anxiety to give us good strains the seedsmen 
have chosen small-rooted types. These they have selected and re- 
selected with great care. If one hits the right time to sow, and has 
the ground in proper order, these selections give roots of 9 inches to 
1 foot long, about 3 inches through at the shoulder, and tapering 
evenly down. Such roots are quite large enough for anj^body. There 
is, however, one little difficulty with these small Beets. The grower 
sows at a period which experience teaches him is about right in the 
average of years, yet a very dry season may upset his calculations, 
and leave the roots only half developed. 

As showing the force of this point, and the difi'erence in " strain," 
I may say that with so well known a Beet as Cheltenham Green-top 
I have had extraordinary variations in quality in different seasons 
and with difi'erent seedsmen, but with the same soil. Thus, one year 
the roots have been models of shape and refinement, and the next 
as coarse as any Mangold. 

. It is not by any means so easy a matter as some armchair-and- 
inkpot gardeners would have us believe to get a perfect crop of 
Beet year after year. It is wise to allow for variability of season by 
sowing long Beet twice, the first at the end of April, the second at 
the middle of ^lay. Further, it is judicious to sow two varieties, 
instead of relying upon one only. 

As regards seedsmen, the prominent firms are to b? relied upon 
as a rule, and sometimes one gets the best of results from the local 
man— but not always. If a grower finds a variety and a seedsman 
reliable he should stick to both. 

In my early gardening days the popular Beets were Nutting's 
Dwarf lied, Pine Apple, and Whyte's Black. At the end of the 
'seventies the first-named had a great vogue, and it is by no means 
played out now. Dell's Crimson appeared on the scene, however, 
and eftected a little revolution. It is still ])robably the most popular 
Beetroot grown. Pragnell's Exhibition followed DclFs, and it is a 



WINTER GREEN'S. 



81 



handsome Beet, of good shape and colour. Some of the most 
esteemed Beets at the present time are strains associated with the 
names of various well-known seedsmen. I have grown many of these, 
and can speak highly of the following : — Cannells' Best of All, Carters' 
Perfection, Dobbies' Exhibition, Suttons' Blood Bed, and Webb's 
Masterpiece. Any of these might be chosen if one only was wanted. 
I have never had a better variety in my garden than Best of All. 

It is pleasant to see the Turnip or globe-shaped Beets gaining 
favour. They are early, reliable, and of excellent quality. The 
Egyptian and Suttons' Globe are of proved worth. 

Beetroot seed is somewhat peculiar. What we call a seed is really 
something more. It is a case containing more than one growing 
germ, which explains the surprise of a gentleman who heard of 100 
"seeds " being sown, and 120 plants resulting ! 

For soil, management, manuring, sowing tables, enemies, and 
storing, see previous articles. 



Cbapter 12. — Borecole, Broccoli, Brussels 
Sprouts, and Savops, collectiuelp knou)n 
as Winter 6reens* 

Nothing is more interesting than to speculate on the stages by 
which garden vegetables of choice strains have been developed. 
Look at the original Brassica oleracea, and marvel at the processes by 
which have been evolved the garden Cabbage, the Brussels Sprouts, 
the Cauliflower and the Savoy. The vegetables named are modest 
and homely enough, but there is a fascinating study wrapped up in 
their leaves and flowers. 

A person of receptive and inquiring mind can never sow a patch of 
Sprouts without a sense of gratitude to the patient and far-seeimg 
men who devoted themselves to the task of making apparently 
worthless plants valuable. It was a long, slow business, and the 
work is yet unfinished. It may be true that the best types which we 
have now have reached a point at which it is difficult to eflect any 
improvement, but it must be remembered that they have to be main- 
tained. This is almost as difficult as developing them. All highly 
bred plants, whether they be Cabbages or Carnations, have a strong 
tendency to degenerate, and unless closely and persistently watched 
the stocks deteriorate with alarming rapidity. 

The four vegetables named at the head of this chapter are 
examples, and exceedingly valuable examples, of what has been 
done. We realise their importance only in those seasons when 
F 



82 PIGTOEIAL FBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 

cultural neglect and inclement weather have combined to deprive us 
of them. 

Borecole :— 

The " Cottager's Kale " is perhaps typical of this useful class, and 
with its many companions, such as the Dwarf Green and Tall Green 
Curled, the Asparagus, and the Hearting, it gives us a very valuable 
group for spring use. We must remember, too, that the Kales are 
ornamental as well as useful. Once, in the years gone by, I recollect 
suddenly coming upon a bed of coloured Kales in a village garden in 
Holland, and having no expectation of seeing any such thing, and 
being smitten with a lively admiration, I stood and stared longer 
than good manners would have tolerated in this country. However, 
Mynheer is a different animal from John Bull. He likes all that he 
has in the way of worldly things (except his banking account) to be 
minutely and thoroughly surveyed. 

Borecole is so simple a vegetable to grow that remarks on culture 
seem superfluous, even if brief. A sowing in March or April, a 
transplantation 30 inches apart in May or June between Potatoes or 
in the open — this about sums it up. 

Pickings from Kale rows may often be got in autumn and winter, 
but Brussels Sprouts and Savoys ought to supply early Greens ; the 
season when the Borecole proves its value most is late winter and 
early spring. The young, succulent shoots which begin to push with 
the strengthening heat are sweeter far than the old leaves. 

Of the curly Kales I like Suttons' Al the best. It is a fine, hand- 
some, upstanding plant. Arctic and Cottager's are both very hardy. 
Asparagus Kale gives tender little sprouty hearts in spring. 

Broccoli : — 

People come to grief with Broccoli because they will treat it like 
Cauliflowers. Botanically the same, the two plants are, culturally, 
wide asunder. To grow a Cauliflower well you want a deep, rich, 
loose, moist soil ; without it, the plants " button." Now, let a man 
who wants Broccoli to stand the winter grow his plants through the 
summer in deep, rich, loose, moist, soil, and he will very likely be left 
lamenting. 

It is because people insist on treating Broccoli like Cauliflowers 
that so few of these delicious vegetables are seen in gardens and 
allotments in spring. The order of use for Winter Greens should 
be : Autumn, Brussels Sprouts ; early winter, the^ same, with 
Savoys ; late winter. Kales ; spring, the same, with Broccoli. 
Generally it works out : Brussels Sprouts, Savoys, Kales, nothing. 

There are x>lenty of varieties of Broccoli which have the elements 
of hardiness in them. What they want is bringing out. Now, the 
bringing-out process is not effected by growing the plants as large as 
possible ; rather is it suppressed. To get Broccoli hardy the plants 
should be raised sturdily and then grown in firm, rather poor, soil. 

There is no occasion to raise spring Ijroccoli in heat ; on the 
contrary, it is a jnistake. The very most that should be attempted 



HOW TO FLAXT GREENS, 



83 




84 FIGTOEIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



in the way of nursing is a box and a cold frame, and this should 
only be tolerated on those dry soils in which, summer planting being 
out of the question, May or early June planting becomes advisable. 
Generally, an outdoor sowing in March and another in April settle 
the question. 

Writing, as I do, after a cycle of dry seasons, I am fain to incline 
a sympathetic ear to those who speak of getting their Broccoli along 
fairly early. After a series of years, in which a sun-baked, iron- 
bound soil has rendered summer planting a very unsatisfactory busi- 
ness, it is natural that growers should want to have their plants 
ready for putting out in May. There is no harm in it, provided the 
soil is not so loose and rich as to encourage rapid, soft growth— then 
there is every harm in it. 

If Broccoli plants are put between Potatoes, it should be between 
earl 3^, short-topped varieties ; and when the Potatoes are removed 
the soil should be rammed firmly around the Broccoli. 

There are now Broccolis to give a supply for eight months in the 
year, but many do not trouble about autumn sorts, preferring to rely 
upon Cauliflowers. ^ It is from March to May that Broccolis are 
most useful. Leamington and Late Queen, with change dishes of 
Purple and White Sprouting, will cover the period. I may, however, 
mention a few other varieties which I have grown, principally 
connected with the names of prominent seedsmen. Cannells' Early 
Spring White and Cannells' Late Spring White have proved to be 
valuable stocks, giving, between them, a supply of delicious hearts 
for many weeks. Carters' Spring Mammoth is a large and good sort. 
Suttons' Eastertide is a splendid mid- spring Broccoli. 
Brussels Sprouts :— 

A long, steady season of growth in a firm, not very rich, soil will 
give firmer and sweeter Sprouts than one violent electric-car rush, 
although it may not give them so large. I have tried the rush 
system for experiment's sake, and lived to thank my stars that the 
other system was in force at the same time. I have pushed giant 
Sprouts along, and had them 1 yard high in June, only to see them 
yield loose clusters of leaves in the place of nobs, or serenely run 
to seed. 

There is no objection to sowing Sprouts in February or eirly 
March ; in fact, early sowing is good. There is no objection to getting 
Sprouts out in May ; on the contrary, that is often good also. But 
always rather poor soil, well solidified, must be the rule, and if the 
Ijlants are put between Potatoes, the soil should be thorouo'hly 
trodden directly the tuber is cleared away. 

All Greens are better sown in lines than broadcast ; then, with a 
little attention to thinning now and again, a quarantining under 
netting when birds are busy, an occasional soaking and dusting with 
soot, sturdy, stifl'-stemmed, short-jointed plants are secured. 

It is a mistake to cut away the tops of Brussels Sprouts until the 
plants are quite denuded of stem produce. 

Of many varieties grown, I am dis[)Osed to choose Imported, 



86 PIGTOEIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 



President Carnot, or Suttons^ Matchless for general use. Suttons' 
Exhibition is superior to any of them for show, but it is not so good in 
flavour as Matchless. Aigburth is a large, popular, and useful Sprout. 
Savoys :— 

The Savoy Cabbage is the early winter Green. The old tradition 
that it must have a frost on it before it is at its best has truth in it, 
though many misread it. Savoys sown in March or April, and planted 
24 to 30 inches apart, either between Potatoes or in open quarters, in 
May or June, give useful produce in December and January. 

The old Drumhead is too coarse for the modern garden, but the 
Dwarf Green Curled is just the thing. Early Dwarf Ulm and 
Buttons' Perfection are also good sorts. 



Chapter u — Cabbaaes* 

It is a poor kitchen garden that has not its bed of Cabbages in 
spring. 

The Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) is a vegetable that can hardly 
be excelled in usefulness by any other that is grown. Most people 
make more fuss about the first new Potato than about the first 
spring Cabbage, but I doubt if they really enjoy it more, and I am 
quite sure that it does not do them so much good. 

The capable vegetable grower schemes things so that his 
Cabbages just fit in with, or slightly overlap, his Broccolis. I mean 
he arranges that before the last Broccoli is cut there shall be sweet 
young Cabbages ready. Sometimes his plans go wrong, and then 
there is a much-felt gap. 

There are lucky people in this world who can sow Cabbages in 
July or August, and cut them the following February or March. 
All are not so favoured with soil and climate, and are very well 
satisfied if they are able to begin cutting in April. In cold soils and 
bleak, wind-blown districts Cabbages from summer sowings are 
often not in till May, which is uncomfortably late. 

The most irritating thing that befalls the spring Cabbage 
grower^ is " bolting," or running to seed. Sometimes one or two 
plants in a bed go, sometimes nearly the whole of them. Bolting is 
very liable to occur where a mild, wet autumn and early winter 
follow a dry summer. The plants first languish through the 
drought, and are then pushed along at a great pace by the wet, thus 
making most of their growth at the wrong time. The experienced 
grower can tell very early in the bolting stage what is going to 



now TO EAISE CABBAGES, 




(=1 



r-l ?3 

\/3 C« 2 



03 , 



5 « 

, 02 



^ O 5 

o I ^ 

^ U 



88 PICTORIAL PRAGTWAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 

bap[)en, and if be is on the alert lie may perhaps be in time to avert 
the catastrophe by piercing the stem with the point of his knife just 
beneath the lower leaves, and passing the blade right through, thus 
forming a slit ; but the plan is not always successful. 

It should be remembered, however, that some varieties are 
always much more liable to bolt than others, and tliis brings me to 
an important point— the selection of sorts. Three very fine 
Cabbages to sow for a spring crop are Ellam's Early, Buttons' April, 
and Webb's Emperor. 

The spring crop of Cabbages may be accelerated in two ways : by 
commencing to hoe early in the year, and by applying a little 
nitrogenous fertiliser, such as nitrate of soda or sulphate of 
ammonia, at the rate of 1 oz. per square yard (see Manures). It is 
necessar}^ to utter a word of warning regarding the use of these 
stimulants. Be very careful to keep them off the leaves. So very 
powerful are they that even when the salt has been instantly shaken 
off the leaves on which a few particles have fallen the foliage has 
browned. 

Cabbages are not held in much esteem as a summer crop, but 
have their value in autumn. To come in then a sowing may be 
made in April or early May. The little St. John's Day Drumhead is 
very nice for this purpose, and a village gardener once remarked to 
me, with ill-concealed gusto, that it tasted like pickled pork and 
Cabbage together ! This may or may not recommend it to the 
reader. 

There are many excellent strains of Cabbage for spring sowing. 
I cannot say that any particular one is better than all the rest, but 
after testing many I can confidently say that any one of the 
following may be chosen with the certainty of giving satisfaction : 
Carters* Heartwell Marrow, Daniels' Defiance (if a large one is 
wanted), Improved Nonpareil, Mein's No. 1, Suttons' All-heart, and 
Wheeler's Imperial. 

While on the subject of Cabbages, one or two connected crops 
may be mentioned. 

First there are the Coleworts, Hardy Green, and Rosette, the 
latter for choice. These may be sown in May for giving sweet and 
useful bunch greens. 

Then there is Couve Tronchuda, the Portugal or Braganza 
Cabbage. We all know that Charles II.'s consort came from 
Braganza, but we do not all know that a somewhat peculiar Cabbage 
comes from there. Th^ large leaves have very thick midribs, which 
form an agreeable disb, and cause this variety to be spoken of as the 
Seakale Cabbage at times. Seed should be sown under glass early 
in spring, and the plants put out in rich soil. 

Thirdly, there is the pickling Cabbage, of which the Red Dutch 
is a good variety. This should be sown in August to give massive 
hearts the following summer. 



OBOWING G ABBOTS ON RTDGES. 



89 



CDapur U— Carrots. 

" The easiest vegetable in the garden to grow/' says the man with a 
deep, light, sandy soil. " About the worst you can have to do 
decently," growls the one with tenacious clay. 

Carrot culture is a much more simple business in friable than in 
clinging soil, and if the ground is not naturally suited to the crop, 
the task of making it so is often undertaken with grumbling. Long 
Carrots of fine grain " and rich colour are grown on the Surrey and 
other sands, and on the alluvial soil of the Lea and Medway valleys ; 
moreover, they are produced without much labour. To get equal 




FIG. 53.-GROWING CARROTS ON RIDGES. 

The left-hand ridge at the top shows the soil drawn up, the 
others show drills made ready for sowing. 



quality on stifi'er stuff the cultivator has to exercise his ingenuity 
and his muscles. 

There are three ways of achieving the object in view. The first is 
to trench the ground, the second is to make holes with a crowbar and 
fill them up with fine potting soil, the third is to make ridges. 

The trenching system is attended with such excellent results that 
it may always be safely recommended for general adoption on the lines 
already laid down in this book, but it may be usefully supplemented 
by one of the other plans. Long, symmetrical and clean Carrots 
may be secured by making holes 30 inches deep, filling them up with 
loam and sand, sowing three or four seeds in each, and thinning the 
plants down to one. 

The ridge system is less familiar, and although it does not yield 
such fine individual show roots, it gives a heavy and clean crop with 
trifiing trouble. By resorting to it on the Wealden clay 1 have 



90 PICTOBIAL PBAGTICAL VEGETABLE GBOWIXG. 



doubled my crop and set the maggot at defiance. The following is 
the way to go to work : Early in spring fork the ground over. ?o as 
to give plenty of loose, finely pulverised earth, then set out the line, 
and with a draw hoe or other handy tool draw the soil u].) into a 
mound 1 foot high and as much through at the base. Make it 
straight and even, and then, holding the tool in a horizontal position. 
])ress the handle into the top of the ridge to a depth of about 1 inch : 
this forms a drill. Sprinkle the seed in thinly, and cover it by 
breaking over the top edges of the drill. 

When the young Carrots are ] inch high thin them, and press 
the soil close round the crowns of the plants which are left. Thus 
treated, the fly is kept out, and the young plants are given plenty of 
room to swelL After the next thinning, which should be when they 
are of the size of a Eadish, and when they may be left 6 inches apart, 
close the soil up as before. By this simple plan grand crops of 
Carrots may be grown. 

I have sometimes been asked if Carrots thus grown do not suffer 
from the ridges becoming dry. jSTo, I take care to sow when the 
soil is thoroughly moist, and this gives the plants a good start. 
Subsequently, the luxuriant leafage which the healthy and vi2 oralis 
plants throw up shades the ridges. Carrots grown in this way on 
the same plot, and of the same variety, as others on the flat, have 
given a far superior crop. 

Carrots grown on the flat will yield good roots if the soil is deep 
and friable, if manure is kept away from them, if they are thinned 
early, and if the soil is always kept close at the crown. Gas water, 
at the rate of a gallon to six gallons of water, is splendid stuff to 
pour between the rows. 

The types of Carrot have greatly improved in the last twenty 
years. Early Nantes, James's Intermediate and Long Eed Surrey, 
the cha^npions of my boyhood, have given place to improved 
varieties, but the French Forcing is still grown largely in frames. It 
is difficult to say which is the best in the various sections, as all the 
great seedsmen have furnished themselves with excellent strains. 
Amongst early short Carrots I have grown, and been satisfied with. 
Bunyard's Stump -rooted, Cannells' Improved Guerande, Carters' 
Summer Favourite, Daniels' Scarlet Perfection, Suttons' Early Gem. 
Sut tons' Champion Horn and Yeitchs' Model. I should not mind 
which of these I had if I were obliged to restrict myself to one. Of 
Intermediates, I have had the best results from Daniels' Telegraph, 
though Bunyard's Exhibition and Suttons' Xew Intermedi ite are 
grand strains. Of long Carrots, Carters' Red Elephant and Yeitchs' 
Matchless are perhaps the pick. The latter is a beautiful root. 



HOW TO GROW FINE C ABBOTS. 



91 



REFERENCES. 



A, a, plants unthinned ; b, plants thinned. 

B, (?, d, untliinned and thinned plants at a later stage. 

C, developing well. D, ready for the show. 




92 PlOTOBIAL PBAOTIOAL VEGETABLE GBOWING. 



Chapter T5 — Cauliflou)ers» 

Theoretioally, the Cauliflower should be one of the easiest vege- 
tables to grow that the garden contains ; practically, it is one of the 
most difiicult. 

A plot of ground, a spade, a heap of manure, a tub of water, a 
packet of seed — what more is wanted ? In theory, nothing ; in 
practice, a great deal. 

The Cauliflower has very pronounced likes and dislikes with regard 
to soil, and they often take a somewhat peculiar form. Thus, the 
famous soil of the Swanley district, which produces splendid Straw- 
berries, becomes Cauliflower sick in a year or two, while on the stony 
hill at Kingsdown, a few miles away, huge crops of Cauliflowers are 
cut year after year. What is more, finer heads are harvested in the 
fields than can be got from the garden. 

This goes to prove that all cultivators cannot grow Cauliflowers 
equally well, yet there are certain points well worth attention. In 
the first place, the Cauliflower is very fond of moisture. A dry, 
hungry soil is death to it. In the second place, it enjoys substantial 
fare, so that there is every encouragement to liberally feed the soil. 
Thirdly, it likes to go with a swing from start to finish of its career, 
so that checks should be avoided. 

Many people do not care for summer Cauliflowers ; those who do 
may sow under glass in January, and the plants resulting should 
head in June or July. Everybody, however, likes Cauliflowers in 
autumn ; and during October and November, when Peas and Beans 
are nearly or quite over, they are invariably very welcome. They 
can be got by sowing in a frame in March, or outdoors in April. It 
is good to have a few sturdy plants about 6 inches long ready to 
put out in May, and another batch ready to go out about the middle 
of June. 

All seedsmen now have a strain of small Cauliflowers which they 
call Extra Early Forcing, or some such name. It varies with the 
seedsman in some slight degree, but not much, as a rule. Nor do the 
Cauliflowers vary much either. Nearly all these give heads of similar 
type— about as large as a cricket ball, fine grained, and milk white. 

To come a little later than these. Early London or Snowball may 
be chosen, then a little later still come Daniels' King, Eclipse, and 
Suttons' Magnum Bonum, and for the latest crop we have Veitch's 
Autumn Giant, and others of its type. 

See sowing tables for depth and distance, and chapters on insects 
and manures for other cultural points. 



OVLTURE OF GELFjRY. 93 



Chapter 16.— Cekrp* 

A TANTALISING vegetable is Apium graveolens. It excites the palate 
of the dyspeptic, and ravages his internal mechanism. 

Raw Celery is not for all the world, yet for those who can digest 
it the nut-flavoured sticks have a charm all their own. ^ The rest 
must make shift with it as a cooked vegetable, and most delicious and 
wholesome it is. Nor must the Turnip-rooted Celery, Celeriac, be 
forgotten. It may be used either raw or cooked, and is very easily 
grown. 

In the remarks that I have made on soil preparation and manuring, 
I have already dealt somewhat fully with Celery, and, except for a 
few remarks on sowing and earthing, I may epitomise its treatment. 

Many people sow their Celery too late, and then have to force it 
along with dung, and spend a great deal of time in watering, to get 
it right. The first sowing should be made about the middle of 
February, and with a little bottom heat (not indispensable, however, 
with new seed ; I have had Celery ready to plant in June from a 
cold-frame sowing in February) there is no doubt about having 
plants ready in time. I strongly denounce thick sowing, for it 
necessitates early pricking off, and no Celery plant should ever be 
touched until it has pushed at least two rough leaves. 

Soon after the seed is sown the trenches may be made. Of 
course, most people leave this operation until five minutes before they 
want to put the plants out, and then do it in a desperate hurry ; 
perhaps, in their tardiness, missing a lovely shower, which would 
have sent the plants spinning along in glorious style. If the ground 
is vacant there is no objection whatever to preparing the trenches 
early, and there are many things in favour of it. With plenty of 
time, the job is done in a more workmanlike way than when it 
is rushed. The soil is sweetened by exposure, and becomes more 
fertile. 

The general way of making a Celery trench is to throw out 1 foot 
of top soil, and put the Celery in the sub-soil. This is wrong. It is 
true that fine Celery is grown when the plan is practised, but only 
at the cost of working in a great deal of dung, which means time, 
labour, and expense. The trench should be made li feet deep, 
9 inches of the top soil being thrown out on one side of the 
trench, and 9 inches of the bottom soil on the other. When planting 
time comes the top soil should be put back for planting in, because 
it is the best, and the sub-soil, which is inferior, should be sprinkled 
with superphosphate, and left to improve ; it will eventually come in 
for earthing. 

By this simple plan, excellent Celery can be grown with a little 
bone flour and nitrate of soda (see " Manures and it will be much 



lU PICTORIAL PRAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWINQ. 

sweeter than the larger, coarser stuff from the dung pit — an abomi- 
nation which no person of refined taste, and with a knowledge of the 
horrors of typhoid, would tolerate. 

As a swamp plant, Celery is very liable to throw up suckers, but 
these should be picked out before they develop, or they may spoil 
the sticks. 

It almost goes without saying that in dry spells good soakings of 
w^ater or liquid manure (sew^age or artificial according to taste) will 
be very helpful. 

A few words as to tying and earthing. There is no gain in 
earthing Celery early, but there is in tying. Some people earth 
Celery in August or September because they see other people doing 
it, and quite regardless of the condition of the plants. If, however, 
the plants are backward they should not be earthed, unless there is 
danger of frost, because earthing checks growth. Celery that is 
barely a foot high in September will often make good sticks if a 
couple of ties are made, one nearly at the base of the plants, the 
other just under the leaves. Raphia is the best tying material, and 
it should be drawn tight enough to bring the stems together, without 
packing. In October, or whenever frost threatens, the plants should 
be earthed. 

While soil is a great protector of Celery, and plays an important 
part in keeping out frost, its primary purpose in the case of early 
Celery is, of course, blanching. Now, Celery can be thoroughly 
blanched in much less time than most people think. A period of a 
month to six weeks usually sufiices. Therefore, earthing need not be 
hurried, but may be done with due allowance and deliberation. 

It is common to unloose ties when earthing, on the ground that if 
it is neglected the hearts of the plants will rot. I have not seen any 
such dreadful result follow a casual forgetful ness in the matter, but 
the principle is good, and may be acted on. Care should be taken, 
however, to keep earth out of the hearts. Earthing should never be 
done when the soil is very dry or very wet. When it is moist and 
crumbly it is right. Putting dry earth to the base of the plants, and 
then sprinkling a few drops of water on the top, is not uncommon, 
and frequently leads to "bolting" (running to seed). At the first 
earthing the soil should be placed round the plants up to a point just 
beneath the leaves. This will probably fill the trench. The soil 
should be made fairly firm, but not absolutely solid, or future growth 
will be small. When the growth has extended another 6 inches or 
so a second earthing may be given, w^hich will take the mound above 
the surface. Later, a good baulk may be built up for protection's 
sake ; and in hard weather some clean, dry litter should be scattered 
over the tops of the plants, or frost may set up decay, which will 
develop downwards. 

The single- ti-ench system is the most popular, and is the best for 
fine ])roduce. There is no serious objection, how^ever, to having any 
number of rows up to half a dozen in one trench where large 
quantities are wanted, and where si)ace is limited. Tying and 



HOW TO FBOTECT CELERY. 



95 



earthing are not so conveniently performed in a six-row as in a one- 
row trencli, but they can be done, all the same. 

It goes without saying that our seedsmen have provided us with 
plenty of sorts. Amongst early whites, the Sandringham Dwarf 
White, successor to that excellent old-timer, Turner's Incomparable 
Dwarf White, is still one of the best. Carters' Solid Ivory is also 
excellent. Amongst early reds, Major Clarke's is as good as any. 




no. 55. -A METHOD OF PROTECTING CELERY. 



The top figure shows forked sticks inserted at every yard length ; the 
hottom one shows straw mats fixed in a sloping position against 
them. 



Later and larger sorts of fine quality are Leicester Red, Standard 
Bearer (red), Buttons' Sulham Prize (pink), and Wright's Giant 
W^hite. 

Celeriac may be raised in the same way as Celery. It is not 
necessary to give it a trench, but a slight earthing is an advantage 
when it approaches maturity. It likes a fertile soil, and liquid 
manure. 



96 PIGTOBIAL PBAGTIOAL VEGETABLE QBOWINQ. 



Cbapter 17— Cucumbers. 

The succulent and seductive Cucumber, Cucumis sativa, has no pre- 
tensions to nutritive value. There is only one honest reason for 
eating it, and that is because you like it. It is indigestible, and 
therefore a terror to all who have weak stomachs. It is nearly all 
water, and consequently has little sustenance in its enticing anatomy. 
With the exception of sugar, which is present in the proportion of 
about two per cent., its nutritive elements are represented by 
insignificant fractions. 

In spite of these facts, which ought to be damaging, but are not, 
for the reason that people ignore them. Cucumbers are devoured 
by the million, and will be to the end of the chapter. We are 
told that Cucumbers are the most difficult to digest when thinly 
sliced and served in vinegar, and that they are not so bad if cut up 
in chunks. Unfortunately, it is in the first way that they are most 
appetising. 

Happily for the Cucumber lover, there is a wide range of 
varieties, and the man with no pit or frame can select a sort which 
will thrive out of doors. 

There is just one little initial difficulty to those who have no glass, 
and that is starting the plants. A temperature of 65^ to 70® is 
desirable for raising the stock. If there is no chance of securing 
bottom heat, or a warm house, perhaps a friend better situated will 
lend a hand, or plants may be bought. 

Unless Cucumber seeds are quite plump, they should never be 
sown until they have been subjected to a steady pressure with the 
finger tip while lying on a board. If they are hollow, and therefore 
worthless, they will at once crackle and collapse. The pointed end 
of the seed may be placed uppermost. It is a common and good 
plan to place each seed in the centre of a 3- or 4-inch pot, then there 
is no fear of the plants becoming crowded. 

If the plants are to be grown under the roof of a pit or other 
house they should not be stopped when young, but allowed to go 
ahead, and staked. Eiclges of soil should be made for them, about 
2 feet apart, and the compost should be rough and lumpy, and finely 
pulverised. Three parts of turfy loam and 1 part of decayed manure 
will grow Cucumbers well ; so will the loam with a pint of super- 
Xjhosphate or bone meal to each bushel of it. 

It is not wise to make large ridges at first, as there is a danger of 
a considerable bulk of soil becoming sour before it is well occupied 
by roots. Half a peck, or a little more, is enough to start with, and 
more can be added as the roots show. The plants should be ready 
for putting out when they are about 1 foot high, and they ought to 
be stout in the stem and close-jointed. 



now TO RAISE GUGUMBEBS. 



97 




98 PIGTOBIAL PEAGTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



There is not much art in training and pruning Cucumbers, but a 
little judgment is necessary in order to prevent the space from 
becoming overcrowded, and to have it well covered with fruiting 
shoots. Cucumbers need no artificial setting, unless seed is required. 
In order to cover the wires quickly, let the leading shoot go up until 
it is nearly at the top and then stop it. While it has been extending, 
side shoots wdll have pushed freely, and may be trained right and 
left. Short breaks from these, termed sub-laterals, wall show^ in 
abundance if the atmosphere is warm and damp, and will produce 
fruit. Each bearing shoot may be stopped at the first leaf beyond 
the fruit. 

It is well to cut the Cucumbers before they have sw^ollen to a very 
large size, in order to ensure a continuous supply. When the plants 
are in full bearing liquid manure may be given wdth advantage. 

There are perhaps more Cucumbers grown on hotbeds than in 
houses. They cannot be had quite so early, but otherwise they are 
just as good. If a bed is made in winter it has to be a very large 
one, and therefore a great deal of manure is w^anted. If made up in 
spring much less will suffice. In either case the same care must be 
taken to turn and sw^eeten the manure and to build up the bed firmly 
and evenly. The lights should not be put on until a candle will burn 
within the frame, thus showing that the air is sw^eet. 

It is well to stop a young plant intended for a frame at the first 
rough leaf, as this wdll induce it to push other growths, and these can 
be taken up the frame, or trained from the centre towards the corners 
if the Cucumber is planted in the middle. In either case the 
Cucumber should be planted on a mound of lumpy soil, and the 
growths stopped 1 foot from the extremity of the frame. Fruiting 
shoots W'ill then form in abundance. It is necessary to give a little 
attention to thinning, in order to prevent the space becoming over- 
crow^ded. 

Cucumber plants will not, as a rule, canker at the collar if the soil 
is lumpy ; should a sign of this disease show itself, rub in soot and 
lime. Nor will they sufi'er from red spider if the atmosphere is kept 
humid. Aridity will bring the enemy out in strong force. There 
are complaints sometimes of bitterness in Cucumbers, but I think 
these are the most common when the plants lag. If they are 
pushed along briskly with plenty of heat and moisture, and sustain 
no check, either from want of heat and moisture or from the attacks 
of enemies, they will be sw^eet. 

Outdoor Cucumbers are sometimes planted out betw^een Peas in 
June. It is not a bad plan, because the Peas give shade and cool- 
ness until the Cucumbers have got a good hold. If raised similarly 
to the others and planted out, like Vegetable Marrow^s, after being 
w^ell hardened, in good, Avell-tilled soil, they usually thrive, but a dry 
spot will not do, because red spider will run riot over them. 

Two of the best indoor Cucumbers are Improved Telegraph and 
Lockie's Perfection. Two of the best outdoor sorts are King of the 
Ridge and Stockw^ood. 



HOW TO STOP CUCUMBERS, 



99 




100 PIGTOBIAL PEAGTIGAL VEGETABLE OBOWINO. 



CDapter 18 — £eek$ 

I AM constantly singing the praises of the Leek, Allium Porrum, ' 
because I think it is a better friend to the kitchen gardener thaa he 
realises. When is a nicely cooked dish of Leeks other than 
appetising'? When do the plants give trouble in cultivation, or 
become riddled by insects, or get damaged by inclement weather 1 
So far as my personal knowledge goes, " Never is the only answer. 

Northerners make too much of Leek culture, Southerners too 
little. It is not necessary to gorge a trench with tons of dung to get 
serviceable Leeks. Exhibition sticks may call for much elaboration 
of treatment, ordinary ones do not. 

The simplest of all methods of growing Leeks is to sow the seed 
in a drill in March, thin the seedlings directly they begin to crowd 
each other, drop the plants into holes made with a dibber 1 foot by 
18 inches apart when they are 6 inches high, and earth them up in 
September. If this is not plain work I should like to know what is. 
Do not think that nothing but poor, half -grown sticks are secured by 
this simple plan. As a matter of fact, really good Leeks can be 
secured by it, provided the soil is well tilled. It is unlikely that 
anything else will be required afterwards than to eat the produce. 
Neither bird nor beast, neither storm nor frost, will hurt the plants. 
They will blanch steadily, and remain in the ground ready for use 
whenever they are wanted in winter or spring. 

If very large Leeks are required, grow them in a heavily manured 
trench, and feed them up with liquid manure. To get the plants 
forward, sow them in a box in January or February. 

I should set a bad example to the cultivator if I wrote a long 
chapter on Leek growing. That is to say, I should, by making a 
long-wincled business of* it, lead him to thmk it necessary to go into 
details of cultivation which will not affect the ultimate issue one iota. 

I may, however, add this : No amount of good culture will give 
large sticks if poor varieties like the London Flag are chosen. The 
grower should choose Musselburgh or The Lyon at the least. If he 
wants large show stuff he must select a naturally fine variety like 
Carters' Holborn Model, Dobbies' International, or Suttons' Prize- 
taker, all of which are well known to me by culture in my own 
garden. 

Lastly, do not start eating Leeks very early in the autumn ; they 
improve with age. And if you know of no better way of cooking 
them, try putting them in a covered jar with a little butter, but no 
water, and baking them for two or three hours in an oven or on a 
hob. They will make their own juice, and prove tender, delicate, and 
delicious. 



HOW TO GBOW MUSEB00M8. 101 



Chapter 19— musbrooms. 

The Mushroom (Agaricus eampestris) is an elusive fungus. It will 
flourish amazingly in some places, and in others will absolutely refuse 
to respond to the coaxing of the cultivator. 

I once knew a man whose place — it was in a suburb of London — 
was so alive with spawn that Mushrooms seemed to fly up every- 
where, whether they were wanted or not. On the other hand, I 
have known plenty of people take no end of trouble to get a crop, 
and fail. 

To take pains is, of course, a capital trait in any person's character, 
but it is not enough in itself, for the unhappy grower may be working 
in the wrong direction. No trouble will compensate for unsuitable 
manure, or bad spawn bricks. So important, however, are these 
two factors, that if they are right the rest of the business is easy. 

•Mushrooms will not grow in rank manure, and it is useless to try 
and make them. They will, however, grow in sweet manure if it is 
at the proper temperature. Let us ponder these things. 

To make anything of a bed, two loads of manure will be wanted ; 
half a dozen would be better. This manure should not be wet, slimy 
stuff out of a stockyard, but straw and horse droppings from a stable. 
It does not matter if it is secured in instalments, so long as they are 
not so small, and so far apart, as to lose all their heat as fast as they 
are got in. The heap should be turned five or six times to drive off 
noxious gases, and if it does not heat it should be sprinkled with 
water. 

When the bed is built up, sticks should be driven into the ground 
2i feet apart, and inclined at an angle which will bring them to 
within 6 inches of each other at the top. Build to their outline, 
shaking the manure well out, and treading it firmly. 

Now for the spawn. I have had to handle many tons of " bricks," 
and those which I like the best are the ones that are delicately 
webbed over with a whitish film. If uniformly dark in colour I do 
not care for them. 

The bed is ready for the spa^vn when the trial stick which has 
been driven into the bed has cooled down from a temperature at 
which it cannot be grasped without pain to one at which it is 
pleasantly warm, say SO"". Never spawn when the heat is on the up 
grade, or your spawn may be baked. Each brick will give eight 
pieces, and each piece should be wrapped in a bit of litter and thrust 
into the bed until it is well hidden. 

Watch the bed after the spawning, and in a few days look for 
white threads running from the pieces of spawn. Directly they are 
seen, cover the bed with 1 inch thickness of good loamy soil, damp 



102 PICTOEIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



enongli to bind wlien it is beaten down. Then cover the whole bed 
with straw or litter to keep in the heat. If Mushrooms do not 
appear in six to eight weeks, mix nitrate of soda in warm water at 
the rate of 1 oz. per gallon, and give the bed a good soaking. 

It is easy to fail with Mushrooms by beoinning at the wrong time. 
Those who live in the country know that Mushrooms rarely come in 
any quantity during the dog days. It is too dry. The Mushroom 
harvest comes when the sun-baked ground is moistened by the rains 
of September. Observing this, the gardener learns that he would 
act unwisely if he made up his beds at such a time — April or May — 
that the Mushrooms would have to make their effort to come into 
being at midsummer. He therefore makes a start in summer for an 
early autumn crop, or in winter for a spring one. The fact that 
some very skilful and experienced growers seem able to get a crop at 
all seasons of the year must not be allowed to carry too much weight. 

The man who is lucky enough to possess a proper Mushroom 
house, or some cool, dark building that may be pressed into service, 
can manage with far less manure than his less fortunate brother. A 
depth of a foot is usually enough, and with a steady air temperature 
of about 55^^, with humidity, darkness and cleanliness, Mushrooms 
will speedily come, if the other points of culture indicated are 
attended to. 



CDapter 20 — Onions, 

I HAVE heard it remarked that the best Onion grower is the man 
who is the proud possessor of the largest feet, which is a delicate 
way of hinting that the secret of successful Onion culture is firm 
soil. There is a great deal in it, to be sure, but it does not mean 
everything in these days of high culture, and however richly endowed 
a person may be in the way of pedal extremities, he finds a few other 
things demanding attention. 

The Onion, Allium cepa, is an old vegetable, and doubtless the 
gardeners of past days considered that there was nothing left to 
learn about it. They would be surprised, perhaps, if they could 
revisit these glimpses of the moon and see bulbs of 3 lb. weight 
produced the same year as sown. 

There are several important items in the production of large 
Onions, which I will tabulate : — 

(1) Choice of variety. I put this first because it is the most vital 
point. However thorough the culture may be, it is impossible to 
]»roduce large bulbs if naturally small sorts like James's Keeping and 
Bedfordshire Champion are selected. I consider Ailsa Craig to be 



HOW TO GROW LAEGE OXIONS. 103 




104 PIGTOBIAL PBACTIGAL VEGETABLE GEGWIXG, 



the best of all. Others capable of being grown to a large size 
are Anglo-Spanish, Carters'^ Eecorch Cocoa Nut, Cranston's 
Excelsior. Lord Keeper, and Xe Plus Ultra. All of these ^vill give 
bulbs 2 lb. to 3 lb. in weight. Somewhat smaller, say 1 lb. to If lb., 
are Improved Wroxton, Suttons' Al, and Yeitchs' Maincrop. 

(2) Early sowing, under glass. The seed should be sown between 
the middle of January and the middle of February, and the box 
placed on a greenhouse shelf. Heat is not essential, although it 
brings the plants along rapidly. _ A cold frame will do in an 
emergency, but the plants thus rai>ed are hardly likely to become as 
large as those raised in a heated house. 

(3) Deep boxes. It is a great mistake to use a box less than 
4 inches deep. In shallow boxes the roots become matted on the 
bottom, and many are torn away when transplanting. 

(4) Thin sowing. If the seeds are sown thickly the yoimg plants 
become crowded, and the grower is tempted to prick them off too 
soon. They ought not to be pricked out until they are at 
least 3 inches high, because at an earlier stage the roots are verv 
brittle. 

(5) Eich, deeply trenched soil. This, and manuring, have been 
dealt with in a previous chapter. 

(6) Thorough harvesting. The bulbs must have a good roasting 
or they will not keep. I find it well to bend the tops over in August, 
but to leave the plants on the ground till mid-September, loosening 
them on various occasions so as to break the roots by degrees. 
Afterwards lay them in the sun for a fortnight, taking them under 
cover on wet days and at night. 

There is nothing gained by planting the seedlings very early in 
spring. In cold districts the third week in April is soon enough. 
The plants should then be as thick in the stem as a quill pen. They 
may be planted 1 foot apart in rows IS inches asunder. The soil 
must be firm, and only enough should be loosened at planting to 
cover the roots. 

If the soil is well tilled and fed, neither water nor liquid manure 
will be required after the plants start growing. My biggest bulbs 
have been produced when no feeding has been attempted. All the 
summer culture required is to keep down weeds. 

If very large bulbs are wanted from a summer sowing, choose the 
Lemon Eocca, and sow at the middle of August. I have seen 24-lb. 
bulbs of this variety. 

Small Onions are too useful in the kitchen ever to be ousted by 
the big sorts, and they must not be neglected. The two named 
above, also Brown Globe, Danvers' Yellow^, Deptford, and White 
Spanish are old favourites for spring sowing 1 inch deep in rows 1 
foot apart, to be thinned lightl}^ Generally speaking they keep 
better than the large bulbs if drj^— damp soon spoils them. 

Pickling Onions are not perliaps grown so extensively now as 
they used to be, many people preferring to pickle Shallots. How- 
ever, we must not forget that there are pickling sorts to be had, or 



106 PIG TORI AL FRAG TIC AL VEGETABLE GROWING. 

that the variety Queen, if grown thickly in very poor soil, makes a 
splendid pickler. 

Potato or underground Onions are valuable, being productive, 
mild, and usually free from insect attacks. The bulbs may be 
planted 9 inches apart in rows 1 foot or more asunder, in deep, rich 
soil, in February if possible. 

Tree Onions are hardly worth growing when we have so many 
more useful members of the family with which to utilise our space. 



Chapter 21 — parsnips. 

It would be waste of space to devote a lengthy chapter to Parsnips 
after what has already been said about soil and manuring, also about 
Beetroots and Carrots. 




FIG. 60 -RESULTS OF SURFACE MANURING ON PARSNIPS. 

A, manure placed within 6 inches of the surface: soil; ^, manure ; 

e, e, f, plants forked. 
V), manure placed 9 inches from the surface : ^, soil ; h, m.anure ; k, /, 

roots forked. 



GROWING PRIZE PARSNIPS. 107 

The secret of growing fine Parsnips is to deepen and pulverise the 
soil, and sweeten it with lime. He w^ho does this, sows seed thinly 
in March in rows 15 to 18 inches asunder, and thins his plants, gets 
a crop, and generally a good one. 




S^c^ /t^c4^ /A^ ' 



FIG. 61.-H0W TO GROW PRIZE PARSNIPS. 

E, V, fine surface soil ; iv, lower soil ; rr, hole made 30 inches deep ; 

shallow hole made with a dibbler. 

F, 2, prize root in deejD hole ; a, good ordinary root in shallow hole. 



That manure is wasteful is proved by the fact that the finest of 
roots are produced in specially made holes filled with nothing except 
sandy loam. 

The^ best all round variety is Hollow Crown ; the best for 
exhibition, The Student ; the best for flavour. Tender and True. 



108 PIOTORIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Cbaprcr 22 —Peas* 

The Pea, Pisum sativum, is tlie great vegetable delicacy of the 
garden, and it is small wonder that so much interest is manifested in 
its culture. The various points of management seem to possess an 




EEFEEENOES. 

A, raising in pots : a, crock : 

b, rough soil ; c, finer 
soil ; d, seeds : e, cover- 
ing ; /. space for vr^t r : 
gf, ball when ready for 
planting out ; Ji, young 
plants. 

B, raising in boxes i i, box ; 

J, seeds ; k, I, ends, the 
latter to be removed 
when the plants, rn, 
are ready. 



FIG. 62.-RAISING PEAS IN POTS AND 
BOXES. 



inexhaustible attraction for the kitchen gardener, and probably the 
Pea is fated to remain a topic of discussion until the end of 
time. 

I have already discussed the question of soils and manures, and 
the bearing which climate has upon success. I may now give atten- 
tion to a few other matters. 

In the first place, let me say a word on the question of expediting 



A SIMPLE BOX FOR BAISIXG PEAS. 



109 



that early picking which we all set so much store by. It is, of course, 
largely a question of conveniences, but still more of natural advan- 
tages. Do what they will, I am afraid that those persons who have 
no comfortable, well-protected borders, but whose quarters are 
exposed to the cold winds of spring, will not succeed in getting Peas 
so early as others who are more favourably situated. 

By sowing Peas in boxes in January or February, starting them 
in vineries. Peach houses, or greenhouses, hardening them in a 
frame, and planting them out in March or April, a gain can be 
effected. 

An outdoor sowing can be hurried along to some degree by laying 
some short, crumbly, well-decayed manure, mixed with wood ashes, 
in the trenches ; but my experience with the Pea is that in the main 
it likes to take its own time, and means to do it. It will not start 
freely in a very dry soil, but, on the other hand, neither will it in a 
very wet one. There is, however, this consolation — the row that is 



the most deliberate in establishing itself often gives the best 
crop. 

The period of outdoor sowing , is a long one, but it is not the 
general custom nowadays to extend it so much as was once the case, 
except in the very large establishments. Thus, autumn sowing is 
probably less common than it used to be. There is never a certainty 
that it is going to give a gain, because the weather cannot be fore- 
casted. Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not. A span of Feb- 
ruary to June, making the latest sowings of early varieties, sums up 
most people's practice. 

I should like to utter an emphatic warning against shallow sowing. 
It is common to inveigh against thick seeding, but depth is left out 
of account. It ought not to be. People sometimes find their young Peas 
lying on the surface of the soil, and straightway breathe anathemas 
against the birds, the mice, the worms, and, broadly speaking, all 
animate creation except themselves. Now, Peas sown very shallow 
will often force themselves out of the soil in the process of swelling 
and germinating. Three inches is not a fraction too deep. 

It may be interesting to dwell for a moment on the time required 
for a crop to be fit to gather from the sowing. I have given what I 
consider fair averages in a preceding table, but of course instances are 




3. FEET- 




V Piece FOR ENDS 



FIG. 63.-A SIMPLE BOX FOR RAISING PEAS. 



110 PIGTOBIAL PBAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GBOWING. 



on record of much quicker work than is there recorded. Thus, I ain 
acquainted with one grower whose invariable practice it is to sow 
Ne Plus Ultra just eight weeks before the day on which he wants to 
show it. I think, however, that the case must be regarded as excep- 
tional, although it may not be unique. 

It is easy, by cultural means, to greatly increase the size of Pea 
pods. The first step is to pinch out the growing tips of the plants, 
and the time for this is when they are coming into bloom, though it 
might be done a little before ; or, on the other hand, just after the 
pods have formed. The second is to thin the pods. The third is to 
feed with liquid manure. 

It is a safe rule to have the rows the same distance apart as the 
plants grow high, but as some seedsmen are a little inclined to 
understate the height of their Peas, it is wdse to allow an extra foot. 
Thus, rows of a variety said to be 4 feet high might be 5 feet 




V 



iNAILS 



FIG. 64.-A SUBSTITUTE FOR PEA STICKS. 

Boards are placed at every 6 yards length of row, nails driven into 
each edge, and thatching cord is attached. 



apart. It is best, in theory, to have the rows running north and 
south, although if plenty of room is given this is not vital. 

Speaking of varieties, one is torn by conflicting emotions when 
one reads of the meagre list of a century ago. Our forefathers had 
none of the splendid varieties which we now enjoy, and so far they 
are to be pitied, but we must set against this the fact that they were 
saved the distraction of reading descriptions of some hundred or more 
sorts, all of which are spoken of as indispensables. 

It has been my happy fate to grow many hundred varieties of 
garden Peas, and so full of interest is the trial system that I suppose 
I shall go on to the end of the chapter. In looking backward, I am 
able to realise what a great advance has been made. So good are 
the best of our modern Peas that it is difficult to see that much 
further improvement is possible. After a dip into past and present 
trial books, I have ventured to make some short lists of the varieties 
which have done best. 

(1) DiA:arf Earlies. (2) Dwarf Earlies, (3) Dwarf Earlies, 

slightly later. later still. 

Oic'lsea Gem Carters' Dais}^ Suttons' Favourite 

Wilham Hurst Enghsh Wonder 

The Sherwood 



A SUBSTITUTE FOB PEA STICKS. 



Ill 




(4) 2Iediiim Heiglit 
(3 to 4, feet) 
Earlies. 

Suttons' A 1 
William the Fii'st 



(5) Round White 
Earlies, medium 
height. 

Carters' Lightniiig 
Carters' Springtide 



(6) Medium Height Earlies, slightly 
later than seciious 4 a7id 5. 

Carters' Early Morn, Suttons' Early Giant 
Laxtons' Gradus 

Note. — If I had to choose three varieties 
from the above six sections, to give pods in 
June, I should choose Chelsea Gem, Daisy, 
and Early Giant. 

(7) Dwarf to Medium Second Earlies. 

( These will yield 
heavily towards 
Carters' Anticipation the end of June 
Suttons' Peerless .,.-{ and the early 



Webb's Senator 



half of July. 
Choose Peerless 
if one is wanted. 



(8) Tall Early M airier ops (5 to 6 feet). 



Boston Unrivalled 

Duchess 

Duke of Albany 



rThese will be at 
their best from 

I mid - July on- 
"■"j wards. &hoose 
*•* Duke of Albany 

I for one. 



(9) Tall later Maincrops. 
Alderman 

Matchless Marrow . , 
Suttons' Satisfaction., 

(10) latest Crops, 



Autocrat 

Carters' Michaelmas 
ISTe Plus Ultra 
Sharpe's Queen 
Veitchs' Perfection 



FIG. 65.-ANOTHER SUBSTITUTE 
FOR PEA STICKS. 

Six feet quartering is used, to 
which cross pieces are attached 
9 inches apart. Tarred twine 
is then stretched alono;. 



These will be 
in their prime 
towards the 
end of July 
and the early 
half of August. 



•These will be in 
season from 
mid- August on- 
wards, accord- 
ing to the 
weather. Select 
Autocrat for 

. one. 



112 PIGTORIAL FRAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING, 



CDapter 23 —potatoes. 

Theee is beauty as well as utility in a well-grown Potato-a beauts 
that the eye of the grower can see, if no other can. No garden croi 
IS there, be it hower or fruit or vegetable, which can rival in interesi 




FIG. 66. A GOOD SET. 



A BAD POTATO SET. • 113 

this miglity tuber, and it would be a joyful tiling for me (if not for 
my reader) if space permitted me to write my fill about it. 

Volumes could be written about the Potato, volumes have been 
wnntten about it. Its history, its culture, its diseases— all form 
themes for many a lengthy chapter. I could write of the Potato as 




IT 



FIG. 67.-A BAD SET, 



lU riCTOBIAL FnACTI'\iL VEGETABLE GROWIXG. 



the novelist writes of love, discussing its strength and its weLikness, 
its beauty and i:-- ':l:arrri-. i:s elasiveiiess anu c^'ntradicrious. its 
influence on liuiLa _ n. its countle-- i^La---. iii!pu!>es, and 

elfc'Cts. All th:- iia.y l^e, I am tied down_. by typebound 
decree, to a few ai:ri'a_'.:^d y:i.r:i,rai'b>. 

Let me s:!-:: a tcw la^iM- of sp:c::il interest in connection with 
Potatoe>. aa.i ,:^'e th^in caad artei.ricai. 

What is the b^^r ^ranin or Pvrato seed i By seed, it is well 
understood. I do ncc -prak cO -crd prope]\ wliiL'li i> r^nlv lued in 
crossd^reeding. but or Srt-i. la;2-e or sniab -ced bc^ ; Should it 
be cut or uncut Xow. the more l^jaatces a man ^r-WYs and the more 
carefully he experiments— in >horr. the m'"'r>e ex]-?rienced he is. the 
more he hesitates t-:^ answ-r these cpa^-ti v-.s. Th'.ase experts who 
have never grown P'^tatoes, except on be>t Lvaality. t\A';'pence-per- 
ream. sermon paper, cau answer them fast enough, oi c:ur>e. A- to 
the lirst, in a con-:dera:de collection nf varieties some are r.aturally 
large and otliers .-mall. A H-oz. seed would be large in the ca-e of 
Myatt's Ashleaf. but small in the case of b p-to-date, And as to the 
second, a cut set is good if it has a strong" rent and is dry, but bad 
if it is unsprouted and wet, when planted. Taking an average of 
many >orts. I shoald say (I) that t^-^ 3-oz, seed i- large enough for 
anything or anybody : {2) tliat it mattc-rs very little whether whole 
or cut sets are u-ed so long as tkev are wdl prepared beforehand. 
Personally, I have done eqnaby well ur.der the ruht conditions and 
equally badly under the wrong with both. 

People generally begin to think about their -red Potatoes some 
half hour or so before they want to j'lant. They -liouid thirds abont 
them directly they take them up tUe previ^ou- year, >eed Pcoatees 
should nevei be clamr^-d. but should be kept in a light, cool, frost- 
proof place. They wik tiion beceme ^reen, in this -tate they are un- 
wholesome as lo^d. but are much liardlcr than ungreened tubers, and 



EEFERExXCES TO FIGURE OX PAGE 115. 

A, section of 8-inch pot: a, draiiifige : a ••set" with one strong sprout 

placed at the proper depth and :;u li^h: position; c, depth ot cover- 
ing with soil if a top-dressing i- : : : ir o ied when the top is well above 
the level of the rim of the pot, od-eiwi^e cover to depth shD^n: cf, 
space for water. 

B, result— e.rly Potatoes of home production. 

C, section of Ti-inch pot: drainage; /, rough compost: ^7, Sjil ;2 parts 

light fibrous loam and 1 part well-rotted manm^e, old Mushroom led 
manure or hotbed debris^ or even rotted leaves, answeiing well) ; h, 
*^set8," each with one strong sprout, in proper position and duly covered 
with soil ; t, space left for top-dressing ; /. room ultimately required for 
water. 

D, section of r2-inch pot wdth Potato plants propeily earthed : /.-, soil added ; 

/, space for water. 

E, result of growing three plants in 12-inch pots, two tops being omitted for 

lack of space. 



116 PIGTOHIAL PB ACTIO AL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



will keep fresh and sound a very long time. In February they 
should be set on end to sprout ; and if a fairly large seed pushes two or 
more sprouts, a knife may be passed between them, and through the 
Potato longitudinally, so as to give two sets in plaxe of one. The 
cut surfaces may be seared with lime or soot. 

When should Potatoes be planted ? All a question of soil and 
situation. On a Avarm, sheltered border, especially if the soil be 
light, February or early March planting is safe ; but in exposed 
places, particularly if the soil be stifif and cold, April is quite soon 
enongli. People exaggerate the advantages of early planting, or fai! 
to see how inevitably they are modified by circumstances. In 1901 
my best piece of Potatoes was Up-to-Date planted at the end of 
May, and not from very grand seed either. If the seed is in a good 
store, is fresh, and is sprouting well, it is often better than in the 
ground. Autumn planting crops up now and then, generally as a 




FIG. 69. -A POTATO PLOUGH. 



1, steel plate 10 by 18 inches, I inch thick, cut as shown by the 

dotted line. 

2, handle, 4 feet 8 inches long. 

3, a piece of iron, 14 by IJ inches by | inch. The moulds are 

riveted to this, and it is then welded to the handle. 

consequence of some experiment in that direction which has happened 
to turn out well. It may be tried, but it can never become general. 

The depth to plant is in some degree dependent on the soil, but 
4 inches should be the minimum in heavy, and 6 inches in light, soil. 

It is, I suppose, needless to say that the man who has a choice 
between a light and friable soil and a stiff and heavy one should 
choose the former. To their credit be it spoken, many owners ot 
strong soil turn out excellent Potatoes, but it cannot be gainsaid that 
a sandy loam is the ideal soil for Potatoes. It occasionally happens, 
though not often, that the two different classes of soil are found in 
one parish : such is the case in the one in which I now write. 
Judging by general work there, the heavy soil men are the best 
gardeners, ljut the light soil brigade show the best Potatoes. Un- 
happily, most of us have no choice in this very important matter, 
and we mnst do the best we can with what we liave, working on 
the principles set forth in previous cha})ters on soil and manuring. 

I Wanting Potatoes closely is bad in two ways : (1) It means 
crowding, which favours weak growth, (2) it leaves an inadequate 



A POTATO HOE. 



117 



s ipply of soil for earthing. The rule to plant first early sorts 
9 inches or 1 • foot from set to set and 2 feet apart in the rows, 
second earlies and small topped maincrops 1 foot by 2| feet, and 
coarse topped varieties 15 inches by 3 feet is good. 

What is a good crop of Potatoes 1 In this connection I am 
irresistibly reminded of one of the sermon-paper experts, who 
happened to find himself on a platform extolling the virtues of an 
artificial manure formula that he had read of somewhere. One of 
the horny-handed sons of toil present asked how many Potatoes it 
would grow per rod, and received the startling reply, "About 20 
sacks." I have no such dazzling prospect as this to hold out. One 
sack of a hundredweight and a half per square rod, pole or perch, 
equal to 12 tons per acre, is a very good crop. Once, and once only, 
I saw two sacks per rod lifted. The variety was Up-to-Date. 



Those who are interested in the question of how many Potatoes 
can be grown from a given quantity of seed may be reminded of a com- 
petition which took place some twenty-seven years ago, the quantity 
allowed being 1 lb. A Kentish gardener was the victor, and history 
records (truthfully let ns hope) that he produced 647 lb. of Potatoes. 
I must confess to having nourished " doots " about this, but I once met 
with a person who claimed to know all about the matter. He 
informed me that a strong local committee checked all the pro- 
ceedinrs of the victorious gardener, and that there is no doubt that the 
record is perfectly accurate and genuine. My informant certainly 
astonished me in one respect. He stated that "the way in which the 
grower treated his seed was to remove the eyes with a gouge and 
establish them. I just remember the variety. Eureka, a hideously 
coarse Potato, lumbered with eyes ; but all the same I was, and am, 
surprised to hear that enough plants to yield such an enormous crop 
were secured in this way. I should have thought a great many more 
plants could have been secured by starting the sprouts in a box on 




118 PICTOBIAL PBACTICAL VEGETABLE GBrnviXG. 



a greenhouse sliejf, for '?\n be -eciired. and sub- 
sequently established lik- - :i;:rir.^>. in this v^ay. But 

perhaps it was against the rule-. 

Eureka, with many a better Purato. has passed into the great 
limbo of the forgotten, but there are enough ^" i.rictie- -rill Itrt to 
bewilder and perj^lex the grower. For four c ^risecunve vt-ar- I 
myself grew upward- -:x:y -cr:-. rliaiuir^ the vurietie- tu a con- 
siderable extent each ye .r. yet 'iue-tion> reuchei nie. and redch me 
still, about scores of varieties that I know only by repute. I give 



FIG. 71. POTATO SENSATION. 



T^YO GOOD POTATOES. 



119 




FIG. 73.- POTATO SATISFACTION. 



120 PIGTOBIAL PEAOTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



herewith a few tribles of Potatoes which I have grown, in the hope 
that they and the selections wiiich accompany them may be of use :— 



.First Ea/'It/ Kidneys : 
Britamiia 
Carters' First Crop 
Duke of York 
Mj'att's Ashleaf 
Puritan 
Sharpens Victor 
Suttons' Eingleader 
Yeitchs' Aslileaf 



Of these Puritan is the heaviest cropper 
on my stiff soil, and Eingleader much 
the best in flavour. I should choose 
the former (which often runs out to 
a round sha.pe) if I had to limit my- 
self to one. 




f:g. 74. ^potato pink perfection. 



/o'.v^ Tjirlii Tldiiufh : 

Suttons' Al .. ) Al is a splendid sort, and should be 

Suttons' Harbinger ... ... ... ) widely grown. 

Second Earhj Kidnr^/s : 

Frido of Tonbridgo . ... Three splendid Potatoes. I think Re 

Suttons' Reliance ... ... ..V liance is rather the best of the three 

Wliito Benutv of Hebron ... ... j but there is not much in it. 



Tiro GOOD POTATOES. 



121 




FIGS 75 AND 76.— POTATOES LORD T£NNYSON (upper) AND PRIDE OF 
TON BRIDGE (lower). 



122 PICTORIAL PHAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



}icli(di)ig peohle-shapecV) ; 
\ 



Main Crop and Late, IFhite Kidneys 
Bruce ... 

Carters' Goldfinder ... 

Chancellor ... 

Crawley Prizetaker 

Daniels's Special 

Devouian ... 

Future Fame ... 

Satisfaction 

Sensation 
Snowdrop ... 
Suttons' Ideal 

The Canon 

UX3-to-date ... .. ... .. / 

IFaoicrop a)id LaU\ White Rounds : 
Abundance ... 
Carters' Snowball ... 
Imperator 
Eo3'al Sovereign 
Royal Standard 
Schoolmaster ... 
Syon House Prolific... 
Windsor Castle 



All excellent Potatoes, with Crawley 
Prizetaker, Snowdrop, Ideal, and 
Up-to-date as, perhaps, the pick. 



, Syon House Prolific and \Yindsor 
} Castle are the pick here. 





FIG. 77.-POTATO SPECIAL. 



TWO ''ROYAL'' POTATOES. 



123 




FIGS. 78 AND 79.-POTATOES ROYAL SOVEREIGN (upper) AKD ROYAL 
STANDARD (lower). 



12^ PICTORIAL FRACTICAL VEGETABLi: GROWING. 



Ma 'incrop <' icl Lf'tc, Colo^ 
Beauty of Hebron 
Early Eos e 
Edgecote PiiriDle 
Elephant 
Eield Marshal 
Lord Eagian ... 
Mr. Bresee 
Pe3rless Eose .. 
Eeadino' Eubv 



■clKi 



la/icys 



Beauty of Hebron is much the best for 
general use; the 'jiLer- need not be 
grown except rca- exhibition. 




FIG. SO.-POTATO PEERLESS EOSE. 



Mii iicffij) "I'^J Irifr, Cohjiii'vd llvii.tw'.s 

Adir(<ndiick 

King of tlie E assets ... 
Lr^rd Tennyson 
Pink Perfection 
Puqile Perfection ... 
Queen of the Valley... 
Eoading Eusset 

The Dean 

Vicar of Laleham ... 



These are hi tlio main shnw Potatoes. 
I like Pvirplf I'erlecti(jn the best for 
general use. 



POTATO Ur-TO-DATE. 



1-25 




126 riGTOEIAL FRACTWAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Chapter 24 — RDubarb. 

It is as unnecessary to sing tlie praises of Rhubarb as it would be 
foolish to decry it. The commanity has made up its mind that it 
likes Rhubarb, that Rhubarb is good for it, and that consequently 
Rhul)arb it must have. There is really no more to be said. 

Nor is there much room for remarks on how to make Rhubarb 
grow. If the question Avere how to kill it, the case would be 
different, and there would be a fine field for discussion. Rhubarb 
takes some killing, and if anyone wants to thoroughly disestablish a 
colony of it he has to dig hard and dig deeply. 

Probably the majority of people establish Rhubarb by planting 
" crowns "—rootstocks with latent or starting buds. This maybe 
done in autumn or spring, the latter for choice. But seed may be 
resorted to, of course, and spring is the time to sow it. 

If Rhubarb fails — and, accommodating as it is, it does so some- 
times — the cause may usually be sought in plantilig on a cUy, poor 
site. You will sometimes see Rhubarb planted on a slope, from 
which the water naturally drains, leaving the ground parched for a 
considerable part of the year. That does not suit Rhubarb. It 
likes moisture. With its stiong roots and crowns, it revels in food 
too. The soil can hardly be made too deep and rich. I once knew 
an old gardener celebrated for his Rhubarb, in which he took great 
priJe. He was supposed to have some great and mighty secret 
bearing on its culture, which no one could induce him to part with. 
He was bowled over at last, though. The secret proved to be a hose 
pipe fed from a sewage tank, and trained surreptitiously along a 
back way to the Rhubarb. That pipe won him many a prize. 

It is no use cramping Rhubarb for room. Give the crowns a 
yard apart, at least ; more for a big variety like Victoria. If they 
become very strong, they might be lifted for forcing if that is 
required the first year, but frequently it is wise to wait till the 
second. If a large stool with several crowns is lifted, it is a simple 
matter to cut off one or two crowns for replanting, force the rest of 
the stool, and then throw it away. Of course, forcing on the ground 
— i.e. turning a dark cask or tub over the undug stool, and covering 
it with litti'iy manure— imposes no such strain as forcing a lifted 
htool in a house or shed. 

It was once my ))rivilege to visit the extensive Rhubarb forcing 
grounds in the neighbourhood of Leeds. There the Rhubarb is 
forced in knv wooden sheds heated by brick fiaes. The roots are 
packed on the floor, and rich, friable soil is worked between and 
over them. This is kept moi.st, and the i)lace kept dark. With a 



128 PICTOEIAL FBACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWIXG. 



steady temperature of 45*^ to 55° maintained there is soon a supply 
of sticks. 

A young plantation of .Rhubarb should not be pulled from too 
soon. At least a year should elapse before the produce is used. 

The number of varieties is not so great, fortunately, as is the case 
with some vegetables, and it increases but slowly. The old varieties, 
such as Early Albert, Johnston's St. ]\rartin's, Myatt's Linuceus and 
Victoria, still have tlieir following. The first and last are fine sorts, 
and if supplemented by Daw"s Champion or Hawke's Champagne 
for early work, will give all that is necessary ; indeeih Champagne 
for an early, and Victoria for a late, would meet the wants of most 
people. 



Cbapter 25.— SealcaU. 

Seakale is looked upon by most people rather as an expensive 
luxury than an everyday vegetable, and so it is— for the man in a 
hurry. For the man who is not impelled by a feverish e;igerness to 
liave produce on his table half an hour after he has bought the seeds 
or plants it is not an expensive crop at all. 

Strong forcing crowns of Seakale— crowns 8 or 9 inches long, and 
the better part of 2 inches through — are, of course, dear, but it is the 
greatest mistake in the world to conclude that Seakale can only be 
enjoyed by buying such things as these. 

The simplest and cheapest way to start is to buy seed, which is 
cheap enough for anybody. The seed is contained in a husiv, which, 
may l^e l^roken prior to sowing. A drill may be drawn from 1 inch 
to 2 inches deep in well-worked soil in spring, and the seed scattered 
thinly in. Transplant the resulting ]')lants 18 inches by 2 feet apart 
a year afterwards, providing a rich, thoroughly pulverised soil, and 
have no doubt about strong crowns developing. They may be ready 
by the second autumn ; they are sure to be by the third. 

When once a stock is secured, it is the easiest thing in the world 
to maintain it. Lift the crowns in autumn, as soon as the leaves 
break away from them under slight pressure, which will probably be 
in November. There should be a straight growth G to 9 inches long 
and 1 to 2 inches thick (this is the forcing crown), and a number of 
smaller pieces, 2 to 5 inches long and as thick as a cigarette at the 
base. All of the latter may be cut away close to the parent root. 
It is the custom to cut one end straight across, and the other 



FOBCIXG 11 urn An B IN WATER, 



129 




130 PIGTOBIAL PBACTIGAL VEGETABLE GBOWING. 



slopingly. These "wliips," as they are called, should be covered 
with earth, like Potatoes in a clamp, till spring, when they should be 
]~)lanted out in rows 18 inches by 2 feet apart, the tips just level with 
the surface. A number of shoots may sprout at the top of each 
when growth begins, but they should be thinned to one, or the tops 
will be weak and crowded. If the soil is thoroughly well cultivated 
and very fertile, every such whip will develop into a forcing crown 
by the autumn of the same year. 




REFERENCES. 

A, relating to seed: a, seed vessel (pod) 

containing seed, being the form in 
whic'i tlie seed is received; seed- 
proper removed by cracking the 
. pod. 

B, root cutting taken from the root of 

a crown lifie I for forcing and kept 
in soil or sand till planting time : 
c, callus and shoots formed all 
round crown ; d, callus at base of 
cutting from which roots proceed ; 
depth of plantirig. 

C, one year old plant : /, root with side 

roots broken off near main root : 
g, crown cut off ; h, depth of 
planting. 

D, once ioreed crown kept, after cutting 

the heads, in soil or sand till plant- 
ing time: rootstock ; young 
shoots pusLing round crown ; k, 
depth of planting. 



FIG. S4.-E,AISING SEAKALE. 



A system of natural forcing is in vogue in some of the Middlesex 
market gardens, and those who see the pi'oduce resulting cannot but 
admire ft. The growers take up, say, the first row of Seakale, leave 
the second and third, take up the fourth, leave the filth and sixth, 
and so on. Tliis, of course, provides for a number ol ].airs nt rows 
with wide all. \ > 1 etwoen. From these alleys the sod is taken and 
heaped in nd-( 1 foot high over the rows. When growth shows at 
the surface tlje soil is cleared away, and the produce taken I his 
system does not give such early beakale as hard artificial forcing, 



EARLY MISTAKES WITH TOMATOES. 



121 



but the sticks are excellent. Moreover, the forced crowns are good 
for planting out. 

The next simplest plan of forcing is to cover the stools with a pot 
in the open ground, and heap manure or leaves over it. Forcing 
crowns may be lifted, packed in soil in boxes or barrels — leaving a 
space of about 1 foot below^ the lid in order to permit of the produce 
developing— and placed in a temperature of about 55^. 

Seakale is sometimes subject to canker, especially when grown on 
damp, heavy, highly manured soil. A light, very friable, well- 
drained soil suits it best. If the disease puts in an appearance, 
change the ground, if possible, and apply a dressing of kainit at the 
rate of 5 lb. per square rod. 

Of special varieties, Lily White may be chosen, but few are 
offered. 



Cbaptcr 26.— tomatoes* 

There is no abatement in the interest that Tomatoes have com- 
manded these past twenty years, and there is not likely to be. 
The crop has secured a position from which it cannot be dis- 
lodged. Its culture will extend, and the number of varieties 
will grow with steady persistency : that is a safe prophecy. 

Naturally, when Tomato growling first began to become 
general, mistakes in culture were made. If there is a right w^ay 
and a wrong w^ay of doing a thing, trust human nature to stumble 
on the wTong one. But if the unthinking many go astray, there 
are always, happily, the observ^ant few to ponder, to experiment, 
and finally to discover the road to success. 

The general mistake made wath Tomatoes was overmanuring. 
The plants w^ere gorged wuth dung, and as a result they 
smothered themselves wdth foliage, bore little fruit, and w^ere 
ready to embrace w-ith open arms the first enemy that came 
along. We have changed all that. We banish the dung fork to 
the uttermost depths of the toolshecl w^hen w^e think about 
Tomatoes ; and with a less pampered, less plethoric, plant we 
get health and fruitlulness. It is possible, of course, to carry 
the principle too far. I cannot think that the dry ash bed, w^hich 
some speak of, gives the best crops. Indeed, the best which I 
have any know^ledge of are grown in about 6 inches de^Dth of 
sound turfy loam, enriched with a little burnt woody refuse. 

The great thing with Tomatoes is a good start. I do not 
mean by this a very early one, unless the grower has tlie markets 



132 PIGTOETAL PRAGTIGAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



in view. Nor is it in the least degree necessary to push the 
plants along in a great deal of heat, especially if outdoor culture 
is the object. Experience teaches nae that if the plants grow 
steadily during their early stages, it does not much matter if 
they move rather slowly, and that the plant which is only 8 or 
9 inches high when it is put out is just as likely to give a crop 
as the 2-footer — if anything, rather more so. 

It is wise to avoid sprinkling the seeds, and instead to put 
them in the soil one at a time, about 1 inch apart. This 
effectually prevents crowding, which is the great bane of 
Tomatoes. If plump and firm, nearly every one will germinate. 
Use a box, a pot, or a pan, and cover not more than ^ inch. 
A greenhouse shelf is a capital place for starting the seeds. I 
have, however, had a good crop from plants started in a cold 
frame ; and an acquaintance, who loves to do things in ways of 
his own, and finds no pleasure whatever in anything that he has 
to do like other people, always insists on sowing his seeds under 
a south wall, in the open air, and covering them with upturned 
pickle bottles. 

The seed vessels should be shaded until the plants come 
through, not afterwards. The thin seeding does away with the 
necessity for pricking off the plants early, and that in itself is 
a grand thing, because shifting Tomatoes before they hav^e 
formed a pair of rough leaves is just the thing to throw them 
back. Each plant may be put into a 3-inch pot, and transferred 
from that to a 5-inch, in which it may remain till planting out- 
time in June. I may, however, say that with a view to saving 
labour and pots, I have often pricked the plants straight away 
4 inches apart into 4-inch deep boxes, and let them stay there 
till June. This plan does not give the biggest plants, but they 
are dwarf, stiff, and strong ; directly they are put out they go 
ahead, and they invariably yield well. 

Many a stretch of fence or wall with a south aspect that now 
goes bare every summer might be occupied profitably with 
Tomatoes, and if the plants are put out 18 inches apart, the 
shoots which start in the axils removed as fast as they form, and 
the leading growth pinched at the top of the support, there will 
he a crop. Or, ci course, they may be grown in the open, each 
plant supported by a stout stake. 

Defoliation is, I consider, carried to extremes by some 
growers. They cut off the leaves wholesale while the fruit is 
still only half swollen and quite green. This is scarcely wise. 
A certain amount of foliage is required, certainly on the upper 
part of the plant, and the wisest course is to thin it by degrees. 
Slice off half a leaf here, pick off one there, and so expose the 
fruit and relieve the plant without ever imparting a complete 
check. 

Tomato history has moved fast, and the recruit of ten years 
{Continued on jmfjc 13GJ 



134 PIGTORIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 




TOP-DBESSIXG TOMATOES. 



135 




13G PIGTOBtAL PHACTIGAL VEGF.TASLtJ GROWING, 

ago is the veteran of to day. The old Large Red was long the 
favourite sort, and, unless I am much astray, I can trace its 
features in many of the modern sorts. It, with Trophy, Hatha- 
way 's Excelsior, Hepper's Goliath and Acme, held sway twenty 
years ago. Then came Hackwood Park Prolific, Dedham 
Favourite, and Perfection ; then Conference, Ham Green 
Favourite, Maincrop, Earliest of All, and Laxton's Open Air; 
then Challenger, Chemin Pouge, Duke of York, Early Ruby, 
Comet, Eclipse, Frogmore, Supremei, and all the rest of them. 
It is hard to say which is the best. For outdoor work Comet 
and Early Ruby are two of the best. For indoors Challenger, 



Supreme do well indoors and out. Perfection is almost unbeat- 
able for show puriDoses. 



"Take away the fiea beetle, and we will do the rest" I fancy 
I hear many harassed kitchen gardeners groaning this. Well, 
I have said my say in an earlier chapter about the arch-enemy, 
and I can add no more now. 

When we have a cycle of dry summers Turnip-growing is 
difficult ; when we have a series of wet ones it is easy. That 
sums up the story. Even in dry seasons we may be able to get 
Turnips by going to work early and late in the year. A sowing 
in February or March will often give a crop when a sowing in 
April, May, or June results in failure. Again, a July sowing 
may come to grief, and a patch put down in August or 
September will yield well. 

Turnips love coolness, and anything that can be done by 
deepening the soil, by shading, and by watering, to give them 
the conditions they prefer is likely to be rewarded. Further, 
dustings with soot and wood ashes in early morning, when the 
yo nig plants are probably wet with dew, will help them to fight 
ilie enemy. It is a great thing to keep them moving when 
young, and so get them quickly into the rough leaf stage. This 
is nob everything, for I know to my cost that there is never a 
stage when the beetle will not attack them, but it is much. 
Sowing broadcast, in the shade of Peas or other crops, is pre- 
ferable to sowing in exposed rows. 

Those who have a warm border should certainly try a 
February sowing, say, of Early Milan. A little protection can 
be given if a very cold spell comes after the plants are through, 



Duke of York, and Frogmor 




fine. ^ Maincrop and 



Cbapter 27 —turnips. 



TBAINIKG VEGETABLE JlARnOWS. 



137 



even if it consists in nothing more than laving bushy Pea sticks 
over the bed. In March. SnowbaU. or one of its class, may be 
sown. For April and May sowings I prefer Red Globe and 
Green Eound. They may not be quite so delicate in flavotir, 
but they are far less liable to run to seed. For late summer 
sowings Cannells" Model, Dobbies" Model, Orange Jelly (Golden 
Ball), or Chirk. Castle may be sown. The two first named are 




Fia. 88.-A VEGETABLE MARROW ON A WIRE FRAME. 

■^ood varieties for pulling to use in October or Xovember. The 
others ai^e varieties which may be stored over the w^inter. 



Chapter 2S.— Vegetable ll^arroujs. 

In my remarks on manuring I expressed the opinion that the 
manure bed is not an unmixed blessing for Vegetable Marrows, 
especially in a dry season. I have seen a cartload of manure 
used for a MaiTow bed, and for a limited time the plants rode 
rampant, but after some weeks of drought the manure, unable 



138 PIGTOBTAL FBAGTICAL VEGETABLE GBOWmG, 

to hold sufficient moisture, failed to keep the plants going, and 
under the stress of cropping they began'to wither. 

Of the two, I would rather have a manure pit than a manure 
heap for Marrows, but neither is really necessary. In well- 
tilled, fertile soil the plants will thrive and crop amazingly if 
only put out on the level, just as you might plant a Cabbage. 

One good seed in the centre of a 4-inch pot, inserted in March, 
and put on a horhed, on a greenhouse shelf, or in a frame, will 
give a strong plant, and this ma^^ be transferred to a 5- or 6-inch 
pot. By the end of May it should be 8 to 12 inches high, and 
very sturdy. It should then be turned out without disturbing 
the ball, planted firmly, and protected with an old basket or 




FIG. 89. -A VEGETABLE MARROW ON A RAISED 
FRAMEWORK. 

A, section of framework ; B, framework erected and covered. 

some other simple shelter until it has got a good hold of the soil. 
Some people sow out of doors in May. 

Stopping is sometimes practised, but it is quite unnecessary. 
A sturdy plant will fling out growths in all directions without 
any help from the grower directly it has become established. 
Even in dry seasons I leave my plants to look after their own 
fertilisation and their own feeding — two functions which they 
never fail to perform to their own and my complete satisfac- 
tion. I am convinced that we should hear fewer complaints, by 
many, of fruit falling after setting, instead of swelling up, if the 
l)lants were grown in the natural soil of the garden. 

It is a mistake to let the fruits get large, except towards the 
end of the season when one or two giants are coveted by the 
housewife for preserving. They should be cut young. For ex- 
hibition, an even pair, with a tender skin which will admit the 
thumb nail readily, stand the best chance. 

There is no more useful Marrow than the Long White, but 
Custard, Moore's Cream, and Pen-y-Byd are very fine in flavour. 



A VEGETABLE 2IAEE0W SUFFOET. 139 



Cbapter 29 —Some minor Vegetables. 

There are certain vegetables which the average Britisher either 
does not care for, or does not consider equal to his stock crops 
Yet some of these ^'minors'' of the kitchen garden are well 
worth growing. 

Cardoon.— The midribs of the imier leaves of this Gloi)e 
Artichoke-like plant are delicious, and the Continentals know it, 




FIG. 90.-A GIANT MARROW. 

The fruit is supported by a piece of netting to ke:-p it clear of Iho 
ground, and prevent it being daQiaged or soiled before tlie 
show. 



if we^don't. The seeds are sown in April, the plants thinned, 
and eventually put out in rich soil. In light land trenches are 
made. In August the leaves are drawn together, made secure, 
and the plants earthed up. The stems then blanch. 

Garlic— This white-bulbed sister of the Onioiij Leek, and 
Shallot may be grown exactly like the last named. 

Gourds and FuniiDkins.— A large tribe, most ornamental, 
but some useful. Seeds of several species are offered by the 
leading seedsmen, and may be treated like Vegetable Marrows. 
The Large Yellow, Ohio Squash, and Turk's Cap are three of 
the most popular. 

Horseradish. — L^sually propagated by " thongs " — pieces of 
root as thick as a penholder, and 6 inches to 1 foot long. These 
may be planted in spring, either on the level, or diagonally in 
a mound of soil 2 feet high. The latter plan is good because the 



UO VIGTOlilAL PBAGTWAL VEGETABLE GrxOWING. 



crop is kept under control. In the ordinary way it is apt to 
become a nuisance. 

Kohl Habi. — A capital substitute for Turnips, though not 
often grown in the kitchen garden. In dry summers a crop of 
Kohl Rabi can often be got when Turnips fail. Treat them like 
Turnips. 

Maize (Indian Corn). — Our American cousins have taught 
us the value of this crop, and we owe them a debt of gratitude 
for the lesson. Successions may be secured by sowing seed in 
pots and boxes in March, and out of doors in April and May. 
The rows should be 5 feet apart, and the plants 18 inches 
asunder. The soil must be deeply tilled and rich. The cobs, 
or lower heads, are delicious if gathered and cooked before be- 
coming hard. Henderson's and Early Dwarf Sugar are two of the 
best varieties. 

Salsify (Vegetable Oyster). ^This vegetable really ought 
to be grown far more than it is. People are too apt to dismiss 
it as a sort of inferior Parsnip. It is nothing of the kind, of 
course. When well cooked it has a flavour of its own, and that 
good. Moreover, it is as good cold as hot, perhaps a little better. 
Sow in drills 1 foot apart in April, thin to 9 inches asunder, and 
lift and store like Beet in October. 

Scorzonera. — This purple root is liked by many, and it may 
be grown just like a Parsnip. It is hardier than Salsify. 

Shallot. — A most valuable crop, and one that seems to be 
growing in favour, especially for pickling. There is no trouble 
in raising a stock from seed, but for quick returns plant bulbs, 
or "cloves as they are often called, in well worked ground in 
February. Bury them half their depth, and do not let the soil 
under them be hard, otherwise they will be forced out of the 
ground when the roots strike down. Late planting is bad. Lift 
and ripen in July. 

Spinach. — A useful catch " crop, coming in well between 
rows of Peas. The round-seeded is often spoken of as Summer, 
and the prickly-seeded as Winter, Spinach, but, as a matter of 
fact, the round is just as good for winter as the prickly, and it 
is probable that the round-seeded sort, known as Victoria, is 
the best for all purposes. A rich, well-tilled soil is necessary, 
and thinning should be practised, for if the plants are crowded 
they will run to seed. Sow from February to September for 
successions. 



HOW TO 



rnOPAGATE 



nOnSEBADlSIL 



141 




142 PICTORIAL PBAOTIOAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Chapter 30 —Salads. 

The kitchen garden is incomplete without its provision for the 
salad bowl. Let us therefore glance at a few of the most 
important ingredients. 

Beetroot. — A few slices are indispensable. They must not 
be too large, therefore we shall give preference to the long over 
the Turnip-rooted when they are in season. Culture and varie- 
ties have already been discussed : see a previous chapter. 

Celeriac. — What an invaluable vegetable is this ! It can 
be sliced for the salad, used to flavour soups, eaten as a relish 
with bread and butter, and cooked as an ordinary table dish. 
Yet it is rarely grown. It is referred to under Celery. 

Chervil. — A minor ingredient of the bowl, yet a pleasant 
one. There are several kinds, but the curled is the commonest. 
This may be sown \ inch deep in spring, and the plants thinned 
to 4 inches apart. Curled Chervil may be sown at intervals 
right through the summer and autumn if required. 

Chicory. — Both Common and Witloef Chicory are grown, 
the latter perhaps the more extensively. It is a favourite 
cooked dish in Belgium. Sow in April and thin to 9 inches 
apart. Lift the roots in autumn, pack in a box with light moist 
soil, and put in a dark shed. The crowns should be left exposed. 
Leaves will soon push, and may be gathered and used, the roots 
being thrown away. 

Chives. — These come in useful as a substitute for young 
Onions, the leaves being cut close to the ground, where they 
will be succeeded by others. Seeds may be sown or plants 
divided in spring. No special culture is required. 

Corn 8alad. — Lamb's Lettuce may be raised from seed in 
spring, and onwards to September. The later sowings are the 
most important, for they are destined to yield leaves in winter 
and spring, when salading material is scarce. Sow on a warm 
border, preferably in light soil. 

Cress. — With Mustard, the most popular of relishes. The 
culture is almost too simple to require detailing; remember, 
however, that the seed should be sown four or five days earlier 
than Mustard to be in at the same time, as it is slower growing. 

Cucumber. — An indispensable ingredient, the culture and 
varieties of which have already been dealt with. 

Dandelion. — Sometimes used as a substitute for Endive, the 
leaves being lutter. Sow in spring. 

Endive. — Hardier, generally speaking, than Lettuce, and of 
an agreeable bitter taste, Endive ranks high amongst salads, 
especially for winter use. It likes a light,, rich soil, if sandy all 



]U PICTORIAL TR ACTIO AL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



the better. Seed may be sown in May, June, July, and August 
1 incli deep, and the plants put out 1 foot apart, except the 
broad-leaved, which may have 15 inches. Blanching is im- 
portant, and may be done (1) by tying up the top and covering 
with an inverted pot, the hole of which is stopped ; (2) by cover- 
ing with boards ; (3) by tying up and mounding with ashes. 
Green Curled and Broad-leaved Batavian are two of the best. 

Lettuce. — A long supply of Lettuces is necessary, and both 
sections, Cos (upright) and Cabbage (spreading), must be 
recommended. Light, rich soil is the best : in any case the 
ground must be well tilled. A simple plan of managing the 
spring and summer crops is to sow | inch deep, in drills 1 foot 
apart, prick the plants out 2 inches apart, finally plant them 
6 inches apart when they have half a dozen leaves, draw some 
early, and leave others to mature= This ensures a good supply, 
and some fine specimens if wanted. The January and February 
soudngs must be under glass ; the March sowing may be out of 
doors if there is a warm border. The last sowing should be from 
the middle of August to the middle of September, and the plants 
should be put out by the end of October, in a sheltered position 
if available. A little protection is advisable in severe weather. 
The Cos varieties must be blanched by tying. Superb White is 
a good Cos variety for general use, and Black-seeded Bath may 
be chosen for autumn. All the Year Round and Continuity are 
two of the best Cabbage sorts. 

Mustard.— See Cress. 

Onions.— The thinnings from permanent crops will supply 
what is needed in this connection. 

Haclisli. — Tough and indigestible when they have to fight for 
life in poor, dry, hungry ground. Radishes are reasonably tender 
when grown rapidly in rich, moist, friable soil. Sow f inch 
deep, broadcast, and thin to 3 inches apart. January sowings 
must be made under glass, but an outdoor sowing may be triec! 
in February in a warm, sheltered spot, though severe weather 
may necessitate protection. From April to the end of August 
there is no trouble, except to net against birds, and keep the 
soil moist. Early in September a sowing may be made for 
winter. This may be in rows 1 foot apart, and the plants 
thinned to 6 inches asunder. Wood's Frame is a good early 
Radish, and so is French Breakfast, w^hich is mild and sweet. 
The Turnip varieties are perhaps the most generally useful. 
The Black Spanish or China Rose may be sown for winter. 

Rampion.— J>oth the roots and leaves of this little plant are 
pressed into service. It may be sown early in May, the seed, 
which is very small, being barely covered, and the plants 
thinned to G inches apart. Gathering may be practised in 
October, November, and onwards. 

Toniatoss. — These have already been dealt with : see special 
chapter. 



A GHAT ABOUT HERBS, 145 

Watercress. — Mthougii running water is best, Watercress 
may be grown on a clamp, shady border: the tiavoiir is usually 
a little stronger, that is all. A start may be made with seed, or some 
fresh bits of Cress mrty be put in 4 inches apart : they will soon 
be established. 



CDapter 31,-l>erD$, 

The herb border has its charms as well as its uses : it is usually 
a pleasant, aromatic spot, where one loves to linger. The com- 
plete herb garden will contain the following, and perhaps sorne 
others : Angelica, Balm, Bush and Sweet Basil Borage, Chervil, 
Chives, Coriander, Dill, Fennel, Horehound, Hyssop, Lavender, 
MalloAV^ Pot Marigold, Sweet Ma>rjoram, Mint, Parsley, Penny- 
royal, Purslane, Rampion, Rosemary, Rue, Sage, Summer and 
Winter Savory, Skirret, Sorrel, TaiTagon, Common and Lemon 
Thyme, and W ormwood. Nearly all may be raised from seed in 
spring, and others, such as Lavender, Mint, Sage, and Thyme, 
can be quickly propagated by cuttings. 

The smallest garden should contain its quota of herbs. Mint, 
Parsley, Sage, and Thyme being regarded as indispensables. 
Frequently they are thrust away into a corner, and allowed to 
look after themselves. This is unfortunate. If possible a bed 
should be made, and the Parsley will come in admirably for 
bordering it. Mint is easily propagated by cuttings, and it is 
best to establish a fresh stock at times, and clear out the old ; 
for the plant runs so freely at the root that it greatly im- 
poverishes the soil. Moreover, it is often attacked by a disease 
called rust, and frequent renewal is, therefore, additionally 
advisable. 

Parsley will generally stand the winter, but it is advisable to sow a 
fresh row, or rows, every year, as second season rows frequently 
run to seed. Some beautifully curled strains are now offered by 
our leading seedsmen. 

Sage is readily propagated by cuttings of the young growing 
shoots in early summer. Common Thyme is easily increased by 
division in spring. Lemon Thyme is not quite so hardy, and in 
cold places is best lifted and potted in autumn, and cuttings 
struck in spring. Where it stands the winter it may be increased 
by division in spring. 



m FlGTOillAL FliAGTICAL VEGETABLE GROWING. 



Chapter 32 — exDibUIng, 

As rules for exhibiting gardens and allotments, and vegetables 
at shows, are often asked for, I venture to give those drawn up 
and used by mj^self for several years under the competitions 
scheme of the Kent County Council Technical Education Com- 
mittee, Avhich I believe to be the most extensive and complete 
of all. 

For plot judging, the following scale of points is used : — 



Maximum 
Points. 


Ceop ok Subject. 


3Iaximum 
Points. 


Crop oe Subject. 


10 


Potatoes. 


6 


Rhubarb. 


9 


Winter Grreeiis. 


5 


Tomatoes. 


9 


Onions. 


4 


Cabbage (Red). 


8 


Peas. 


4 


Asparagus. 
Seakale. 


8 


Carrots. 


4 


8 


Parsnips. 


4 


Artichokes. 


8 


Cabbage (Green). 


4 


Shallots 


7 


Turnips. 


4 


Salads. 


7 


Beet. 


4 


Spinach. 


7 


Broad Beans. 


4 


Cucumbers. 


7 


Scarlet Biinners. 


3 


Herbs. 


6 


Leeks. 


4 


Minor Crops. 


6 


Celery. 


10 


Fruit. 


■ 6 


Cauliflowers. 


10 


Order and System. 


6 


French Beans. 


8 


Flowers (Window 


6 


Vegetable Marrows. 




and Garden) 



Two visits are paid to each garden and allotment, the first 
usually between the middle and the end of June • the second 
during August. Thus early and late crops are iDoth caught. 
The points gained by each competitor are placed to his credit on 
the judging sheet. 

Prizes are not fixed in number and amount, but depend upon 
the number of points earned. By this system the best Centres 
and the worst do not receive just the same amount, as is the ca?e 
where fixed sums are given as prizes, but the amount earned by 
each is correlative with the merits of its work. Moreover, in- 
dividual competitors are rewarded in precise proportion to the 
respective merits of their plots. If two points divide a pair of 
allotments 2d. is the difference in the prize. 

Prizes, not exceeding four in number, are given at each 
Centre to competitors obtaining 90 points or upwards. If, how- 



ffmTS ON EXHIBITION VEGETABLES. 147 



ever, more than four competitors obtain 140 points or upwards a 
prize is given to every such competitor. All prizes are ab the 
rate of one penny per point according to the judges' award. 

If examples are needed to make the above clear, take two 
Centres. In one eleven men gained 140 marks and upwards, and 
eleven prizes at one penny per point were awarded ; total, 
£8 5s. 5d. In the other only two men gained more than 90 marks, 
and consequently only two prizes were given ; total, £l 2s. 4d. 

It is of the greatest importance that the system of judging 
which is practised should be thoroughly understood. This one 
is as simple as it is practical^ and it is applied with the utmost 
exactness and care. 

In the first place a careful estimate is formed of the respective 
quantities of the different crops. Sometimes a competitor re- 
duces the quantity of his Potatoes or other leading crop in 
order to get in a number of comparatively unimportant things, 
under the impression that as he will get marks for the Potatoes 
just the same he must necessarily be the gainer. A sharp look- 
out is kept for this, and the scheme is thwarted by deducting 
points under the head of order and system. I never conclude 
the judging of a plot of ground without counting up the number 
of rows of the principal crops, and if there is a. serious shortage 
marks are taken off. 

In the second place attention is paid by the judge to the pro- 
vision made for securing the longest possible succession of pro- 
duce. It is considered a fault if all the Peas are coming in to- 
gether. It is considered a merit if good judgment in the 
selection of varieties and the times of sowing results in securing 
Peas for several successive weeks. Points are given for good 
cropping if the place of failing crops is immediately filled with 
young stuff. There should not be a glut at one time and a 
scarcity at another, but there ought always to be a supply of 
vegetables ready for use. Over€rowding is a defect. 

During the past seven years I have judged 5,000 gardens and 
allotments on this system, and it has been found to work with 
perfect success. 

In judging vegetable produce at shows the following prin- 
ciples are observed : — 

Broad Beans should open crisply, and display tender seeds. 
Pods which show black-eyed seeds are not liked. 

Kidney Beans, both runner and dwarf, should be even in size, 
of good colour, and brittle. Pods that will not snap under 
pressure without discharging a large seed like a bullet, or which 
are stringy, are passed. 

Beet should be of mediiim size, fangless, and show a dark 
red colour when cut. Very large, coarse, fangy roots, which 
frequently cut pale, are usually passed. 

Cabbage should be of medium size, free from caterpillar, and 



us FIOTOBIAL PRACTICAL VEGETABLE GEOWIXG. 

show a close white grain when cut. If soiled, perforated, and 
soft it is deemed imioerfect. 

Carrots should be even in size, symmetrical, bright in colour, 
and devoid of greenness at the top. 

Cauliflower should be smooth, even, close, and white. If 
yellow, coarse, and partially burst it is imperfect. 

Celery should afford a firm resistance to the pressure of the 
hand, be clean, well filled out, and crisp. If very yielding under 
pressure, full of suckers, showing flower, and worm-eaten, it is 
generally passed. 

Onions should be even in size and clear in skin. Judges look 
particularly for ripeness in autumn-sown bulbs. Spring-sown 
bulbs should be thin at the neck. The Onions must be single, 
not garnished with ofiset.s 

Parsnips should be clean, smooth, and straight. Fanged or 
rusty roots are not liked. 

Feas should be even in size, the pods well filled and of good 
colour, the Peas fresh and sweet. Discoloured, tough pods with 
maggoty seeds are passed over. 

Potatoes should be even, smooth, clean, and not of a huge 
size. Judges do not like to see large and small Potatoes mixed 
on a dish, nor coarse, deep-eyed, or scabbed tubers, nor roots 
too large to be properly boiled. 

Turnips should not show a coarse tap root, and they should 
be white, crisp, and sweet when cut. If discoloured or fluffy 
and strong in taste they are imperfect. 

Vegetable Marrows are usually shown in pairs. Each 
Marrow should be of about the same size as its fellow, should 
yield under pressure, and be tender enough in the skin to admit 
the thumb nail readily. If yellow, as hard as a board, and tough 
in the skin, it is passed. 



INDEX. 



A 

Aconite root, an {illustrated), 68 
Ai'tichokes, Chinese, how to plant 
Cilliistr cited) , 73 ; suitable manure 
for, 26 ; varieties of and culture, 72 
Asparagus, culture of, 7-i ; knife, an 
{illustrated), 75 ; pests and their 
eradication, 52 ; the manurial needs 
)f, 26 



B 

Basic slag, price and uses of, 36 
Beans, and theii' manurial treatment, 
27 ; a selection of Runner, 79 ; a sup- 
port for Runner {illustrated), 77 ; 
black dolphin and red spider attacks 
and remedies for, 53 ; forcing French, 
77, 78 ; storing the roots of Runner 
{illustrated), 79 ; strings and poles 
for {illustrated), 78; varieties and 
cultui'e of, 76 
Bed marker, a handy {illustrated), 43 
Beetroot, a fine {illustrated) , 33 ; man- 
ure for, 27 ; to keep birds from, 53 ; 
varieties and culture of, 80 
Bird, baffler, a {illustrated), 59 ; scarer, 

a simple {illustrated) , 41 
Black dolphin, to destroy, 53 
Bone flour, uses and prices of, 36 
Boot protector, how to make a digger's 

{illustrated), 22 
Borecole, culture and varieties of, 82 
Broccoli, the pests of, and their treat- 
ment, 53, 54 ; varieties and culture, 
82 

Brussels Sprouts, to destroy the enemies 
of, 53, 54 ; varieties and cultin-e, 84 



C 

Cabbages, how to plant {illustrated), 
87; how to raise {illustrated), 85; 
manures for, 28 ; the diseases and 
insect enemies of and their destruc- i 



ticn, 54 ; varieties and culture of, 

86, 88 
Cardoons, 139 

Carrots, how to check the fly, 56 ; 
general treatment of, 89, 90 ; grow- 
ing on ridges {illustrated), 89 ; how 
to gi'ow fine {illustrated), 91 ; varie- 
ties of, 90 
Cask, a liquid manure {illustrated), 29 
Caterpillar, the Cabbage, and its ex- 
termination, 54 
Cauliflowers, culture and varieties of, 
92 ; remedj'es for the diseases of, 54 
Celeriac, 142 ; treatment of, 95 
Celery, a method of protecting {illus- 
trated), 95 ; fly, the, remedies for, 
56 ; general treatment of, 93 ; selec- 
tion of varieties, 95 ; the manurial 
requirements of, 28 ; time required 
for blanching, 94 ; tying and earth- 
ing, 94 

Chemical manures, notes on, 35, 36 
Chervil, 142 
Chicory, 142 
Chives, 142 

Club-root, and its prevention, 54; in 

Greens {illustrated), 55 
Coleworts, 88 
Corn salad, 142 
Couve Tronchuda, 88 
Cress, 142 

Cropping, examples of successional, 

17 ; value of rotation, 16 
Crops, theory of the rotation of, 14-16 
Cucumbers, best varieties of, 98 ; how 
to raise {illustrated), 97 ; how to 
stoi3 {illustrated), 99 ;■ sowing seeds 
of and planting, 96 ; the best man- 
ures for, 29 ; to fight the foes of the, 
56 ; training and pruning, 98 



D 

Dandelion, 142 

Dibbler, a, made from an old spade 
handle (illustrated), 47 



150 



INDEX. 



Digging, two ways of {illustrated)^ 19 
Distance table, a, 44 
Drill maker, a three-pronged {illus- 
trated), 43 



E 

Endive, 142 ; blanching, 144 ; varie- 
ties of, 144 

Exhibiting, a simple system of judging, 
146 ; good points in vegetables, 147, 
148 ; hints on, 146 



E 

Fertilisers, a valuable mixture of, 37 ; 
nitrogenous, 35 ; notes on chemical, 
35 ; phosphatic, 36 ; potassic, 36 

Elies, white and other, to get rid of, 54 

Fork, hay, a transformed (?7/2^5^r«^^6?), 
43 ; manure, as a drill maker {illus- 
trated), 43 

Furnace, a brick, for burning garden 
rubbish {illustrated) ^ 47 



G 

Gall Weevil, the, means of riddance 
for, 54 

Garden, a kitchen, and the wonders 

it works, 7 
Garlic, 139 

Gom-ds and Pumpkins, 139 

Greens, general manures for, 28 ; 
winter, 81 ; how to plant {illus- 
trated), 83 

Ground, how to dig sloping {illustrat- 
ed), 21 ; how to lay out a 20-rpd plot 
of {illustrated), 9 ; how to layout 
a plot of J acre {illustrated), 10 ; 
^how much can a man manage ? 14 ; 
the amount of required for supply- 
ing various sized families, 14 ; what 
can be grown on 20 square rods of, 
11, 13 



H 

Herbs, general culture of, 145 ; varie- 
ties of, 145 

Horseradish, a root of {illustrated), 
(jC) ; how to propagate {illustrated), 
141 

Hotbod, a trench {illustrated), 51 ; a 
very simple {illustrated), 50 ; for a 



double light frame {illustrated), 49 ; 
for a single light frame {illustrated), 
48 



I 

Intercropping, examples of, 17 



K 

Kainit, price of, 36 
Kohl Rabi, 140 



L 

Ladle, a liquid manure {illustrated), 31 
Leeks, seed sowing and planting, 100 ; 

varieties of, 100 
Lettuce, seed sowing, 144 ; varieties 

of, 144 



M 

Maize or Indian Corn, 140 

Manure, liquid, a cask for making 
{illustrated), 29 ; the best for various 
groups of vegetables, 25, 26; the 
best position for, 19 ; the excessive 
use of, 24 ; water, an easy way of 
making {illustrated), 27 

Manui'ing, errors in, 23 

Mint disease {illustrated), 57 

Muriate of potash, price and uses of, 36 

Mushrooms, general treatment of, 102 ; 
making beds for, 101 ; spawning 
beds, 101 



N 

Nitrate of potash, price of, 36 
Nitrate of soda, uses of and price, 36 



O 

Onions, a manurial mixture for grow- 
ing, 30 ; choice of variety, 102 ; 
general culture of, 104 ; how to 
grow large {illustrated), 103; the 
Cocoanut {illustrated), 105 ; to 
(;lieck mould and fly upon, 58 



P 

Parsnips, canker in caused by manure, 
3M ; growing prize {illustrated), 107 ; 



INDEX. 



151 



remedy for canker in, 58 ; results 
of surface manuring on (iUustrated), 
106 

Peas, a good system of growing, 31, 
32 ; a selection of varieties, 110, 111 ; 
. a simple box for raising [ilhistrated), 
109 ; fighting the enemies of, 58 ; 
increasing the size of the pods, 110 ; 
manurial treatment of, 30 ; protectors 
for {illustrated), 59; raising in pots 
and boxes [iUust rated), 108; substi- 
tutes for sticks {illustrated)^ 110. 
Ill ; time and manner of sowing, 
109 

Planting and sowing table, 42 

Plot, an expeiimental {illustrated), 25 ; 
how to crop a J acre, 1 1 ; how to 
crop a 1 acre with fruit and vege- 
tables {illustrated), 12 

Potatoes, a bad set {illustrated), 113 ; 
a good artificial manure for, 33 ; a 
good set {illustrated), 112 ; a hoe for 
{illustrated), 117 ; a plough for 
{illustrated), 116 ; a selection of 
varieties, 120-124; blight and its 
cui'e, 62 ; curl in the leaf, 62; grow- 
ing early in pots {illustrated), 115- 
Ideal {illustrated), 119 ; Lord Tenny- 
son {illustrated), 121; Peerless Eose 
{illustrated), 124; Pink Perfection 
{illustrated), 120 ; prepaiing seed, 
114; Pride of Tonbridge {illus- 
trated), 121; Eoyal Sovereign {illus- 
trated), 123 ; Royal Standard {illus- 
trated), 123 ; Satisfaction {illus- 
trated), 119; sc^ib {illustrated), 63; 
Sensation {illustrated), 118 ; size of 
seed, 114; Special {ilhistrated), 122; 
the diseases of {illustrated), 60. 61 ; 
time and depth of planting, 116; 
Twitch in {illustrated), 64 ; what is 
a good crop of? 117; Up-to-Date 
{illustrated), 125 

Ptotector, a cross {illustroied), 59 



E 

Eadish, seed sowing, 144 ; varieties of, 
144 

Eake, a good drill {illustrated), 45 
Eampion, 144 

Ehubarb, a good forcing stool (JAlus- 
trated), 127 ; a good planting crown 
{illustrated), 127 ; forcing in a jar 
of water {illustrated), 129 ; raising 
from seed, 128; the advantages of 
feeding, 126 ; varieties of, 128 



Eoots, storing {illustrated), 71 ; the 
best way of storing, 70 ; the right 
way of lifting {illustrated), 69 ; the 
wrong fway of lifting {illustrated) ^ 
68 ; when to Hft, 70 



S 

Salsify, 140 ; disease, 65 
Savoys, varieities of, 86 
Scarer, a bird {illustrated) 41 
Scorzonera, 140 

Seakale, canker in, 131 ; raising {illus- 
trated), 130 ; sowing seeds, 128 ; 
various ways of forcing, 128-130 

Seed, peculiarities of, 38 ; pockets, 
how to make (illustrated), 39 ; 
quantities required, 46 ; sowing, the 
proper time for, 41, 42 ; store, a 
handy {ilhistrated), 40 ; store, a 
matchbox {illustrated), 41 ; the ad- 
vantage of new, 32 

Shallots, 140 

Slug scissors, how to make {illustrated , 
45 

Soil, how to dig heavy and li^hiiilhis- 
trated)^ 20 ; the value of digging 
and deepening, 18 ; various methods 
of tilling, 18 

Sowing and planting table, 42 

Spiuach, 140 ; sowing and thinning 
{illustrated), 143 

Sulphate, of ammonia, price and uses 
of, 36 ; of potash, price of, 36 



T 

. Table, a distance and time of matur- 
ing, 44 ; a sowing and planting, 42 ; 
oi seed quantities required, 46 

Thrips, to kee]3 from Peas, 60 

Tomatoes, excessive defoliation of, 
132 ; how to raise seedlings {illus- 
trated), 133; mistakes with, 131; 
repotting for fruiting in pots {illc.s- 
trated), 134 ; seed sowing and rais- 
ing, 132 : sleepy disease of, 65 ; the 
diseases of, 65 ; the manure question 
in regard to, 34 ; varieties of, 136 ; 
various ways of top-dressing {illus- 
trated), 135 

Trenching, the best tool for, 20 ; the 
correct method of, 20-22; when 
best performed, 20 

Turnips, gall Aveevil on {illustrated), 
67 ; the flea beetle, 65 ; varieties of, 
137 ; when to sow 136 



152 IXDEX. 



Vegetable Marrows, a giant in a cradle ^"ater, a system of storing (illus- 

{iUustrnted), 139 : on a raised frame- tratcd), 47 

work {iUustrated), 138; on a wire Watercress. U-i 

frame {illustrated), 137: raising Weevil, the gall, to prevent attacking 

seeds, 138 : the unreasonableness of : Brassicas. 54 

manuring, 34, 35; varieties of, 138 , Winter Greens, 81 

V^egetables gTouped according to their | 
manurial requirements, 25^ 26 




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